Haas F1 wrong to oust Schumacher according Grosjean
Dec.9 - Former Haas driver Romain Grosjean thinks the small American team should have kept Mick Schumacher for 2023.
At the end of 2020, just after his near-fatal fiery crash in Bahrain, Frenchman Grosjean - now in Indycar - was ousted by Haas as the team replaced the existing lineup with rookies Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin for 2021.
Both of those rookies are no longer part of Haas, with the team deciding to pair Grosjean's former teammate Kevin Magnussen with 35-year-old F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg next year.
Romain Grosjean wearing a Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team race suit during his last F1 drive
When asked why that decision was made, team boss Gunther Steiner explained: "Because we are no longer the same Haas team as at the beginning of 2021.
"Now we need experienced hands on the steering wheel."
Grosjean, who has been signed up for Lamborghini's factory Le Mans effort, disagrees with his former F1 boss.
"Mick Schumacher did a good last part of the season and from my point of view there was no reason to change anything in the lineup," he said.
"The team probably just wanted a different driver."
However, the Frenchman agrees that German Hulkenberg is competent.
"Hulkenberg is a very talented driver who used to show great speed," said Grosjean. "Let's see what he can achieve at Haas, but - again - that's not the decision I would have made on the driver question."
Indeed, Hulkenberg has been essentially out of F1 full-time since he lost his works Renault seat at the end of 2019.
He admits to having felt "human degradation" towards the end of the post-Abu Dhabi test.
Steiner isn't worried.
"We also have pre-season testing in Bahrain," the Haas team boss insisted. "I think he'll be right on top of it by then.
"Physically these Formula 1 cars are quite demanding and it will take him a while to get used to them because the only way you train your muscles is to drive the cars.
"He was reasonably fit already, but then we also had the question of whether he is immediately sharp when he comes back after being out for a while. But if you look at the results he showed when he just came in at the last minute, he was pretty good," Steiner added.
As for Schumacher, he looks set to keep his F1 dream alive next year with a non-racing third driver role at Mercedes.
The 23-year-old admits to may have miscalculated the task of going head-to-head with the highly experienced Magnussen last year.
"He went into this season without great expectations - he had nothing to lose. But I did," said the German.
"Looking back, given the signs, my approach was probably wrong."
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I share his view & wouldn't put much emphasis on random substitution appearances as Hulkenberg hasn't done any active racing since the last time he was a full-time F1 driver.
More so the approach of his advisors, that being said the reasons hes out, is crashes and Mag outscoring him, if he thinks Toto is his saviour, hes again being poorly advised
It's always a surprise to me how some people have so much difficulty understanding how F1 works. Drivers get let go because however good they were before they got into F1, the system spits out those who have reached their PETER PRINCIPLE, AKA, LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE for those who did not read the book.
There was a time I had great hope for Grosjean, but he kept crashing cars, and gettig into trouble, same goes for MS. I guess it stands to reason that Romain would not understand MS's F1 demise.
Remember........... in F1 there is only winning.............
As DC says, f1 isnt a finishing school, your either on it, Or... the Mick saga , a great story and of course wed all have loved it if he'd have shown a bit of his Dads racing skills, alas he wasn't/couldn't/whichever/whatever, he might return, has he been confirmed as a Mb employee yet?, whats the hold up? stick him in the car , and lets see his lap times I say, DCs second f1 saying, the stop watch never lies
unfortunately, if you're in a bad car, it doesn't matter how good of a talent you are.
Russel:
2019: 0 points W
2020: 3 points W
2021: 16 points W
2022: 275 points MB
Excellent point. Car is 70-80% of the equation. Had Ferrari put MSC in the Alfa to begin with as the whole world was advocating they might have developed the driver rather than destroying him. We'll never know.
Using your 80% equation the hybrid merc erc car was responsible for 4 of the 5 Lulubelles championships, don't tell the media that for gods sake...
Shrop' I say this with zero conceit, at 25 yrs old I and 6 of my racing mates could have won with that car. Beat Lewie?, I don't know, but no doubt the car was the biggest factor.
At last, now people are realising it's the car that's the winner.
I think Max deserves some credit…
VER does deserve credit...about 20%, maybe 30% because he is really quick.
Agreed.
Nineties,the 00s, who talked about the williams renaults or Msc ferrari, it was ALL about the drivers, now its 50/50 or the car is as big as star as the driver or Bigger esp the Merc phase, funny how things change.
Now Shropp, please concentrate for a second and try to understand! If your man wins, it's because he is the best driver of all times. If your man dosen't win, it's because some shmuck has the best car around and he clearly does not deserve it.
The problem with this reasoning is that it can come back and bite you in the ass, then your fallback position is that the Shmuck is cheating big time.
Them when someone comes around and beats everyone else that ever was somebody, then you crap all over him and point out all those personal flaws that no decent driver would ever have, like wanting to win or not letting anybody pass.
It's really very simple.
I get confused easily, its so complicated, i might have to review the whole 21 and 22 seasons to get my head around who the best is, sorry kids no films this Christmas, or Kings Speech, just f1, f1,f1, your right , very confusing.!
Standby for all the drivers doing a "Wishing you a very happy christmas and prosperous and successful 2023 video card" Well maybe not ALL the drivers....lol
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