Former racing engineer of Grosjean: 'He could have done much better'

Despite the fact that Romain Grosjean has never been able to climb the middle step of the podium in Formula 1, the Frenchman has managed to stay in Formula 1 for a total of ten seasons. One of Grosjean's former engineers now gives a glimpse into the methodology behind the French racer. 

Ayao Komatsu has worked as an engineer with Grosjean at Haas and gives a clear picture of the qualities and shortcomings of the driver. Komatsu begins: “Not many people drive Formula 1 races as long as Romain and with all the problems he could have said, his career could have been over five years ago. But because he has such speed and potential, and he produces strong results that not many other people can do, he survived so long. … It's a shame that someone with such natural talent - and not many drivers have such natural speed - is not able to achieve better results.”

Fast, but not consistent

Komatsu highlights how Grosjean's personality has sometimes got in the way of his racing. His constant search for more speed has sometimes blinded him to the other variables in a Formula 1 race, costing him speed. Komatsu explains: “Because Romain revs up so quickly and doesn't need many laps to find the speed, he often tries to find an extra tenth of a second or another half a tenth of a second and overdoes it. Then he won't get faster or make more mistakes.”

"If he had left a little more leeway or had chosen a step-by-step approach and had shown better consistency, he would have scored a lot more points", concludes Komatsu.