Romain Grosjean agrees with the controversial decision which Michael Masi made at the Abu Dhabi GP; sympathises with Lewis Hamilton.
Romain Grosjean supports FIA Race Director Michael Masi’s controversial decision in the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi GP. Masi was subject to incredible backlash from the F1 community after making the controversial call.
Calls for replacing the Australian with someone else are becoming deafening. Still, Grosjean has decided to throw his support behind the Race Director.
Masi’s decision directly impacted the outcome of the 2021 F1 season’s Drivers championship in Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s favour. His handling of the safety car situation has been hailed as the reason why many now feel ‘disillusioned’ with F1.
Also read: Former F1 World Champion shares his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton potentially leaving the sport
However, Romain Grosjean’s support may serve as some form of consolation for the controversial Race Director. “There’s a few ways of seeing it,” said the French driver.
“It would have been very strange to not unlap those cars and have Lewis first and then Max four cars behind over one lap for the World Championship.
“On the other hand, for Lewis it was definitely not a great call but, as a TV fan, as a spectator, for the sport, I think Michael Masi make the right decision.”
“I don’t think the championship would have been nice to finish under the Safety Car. It would not have been nice to finish with the guys being separated on track being first and second separated by a few cars.”
The championship wasn’t won in one race says, Romain Grosjean
The now IndyCar driver clarified that his support was with Lewis Hamilton for the final race in Abu Dhabi. Despite this, he enjoyed the battle between the two main rivals throughout the year.
“I was more Lewis’ side than Max, so I was kind of, ‘Oh, Lewis lost it over the last part of the season; Max did the same, made an incredible job. But I thought it was so cool to get those two guys going together,” said the Frenchman.
The one-lap shootout was at par with the Netflix-level drama which Drive To Survive creates and according to his previous comments, Grosjean thought it was great for the sport.
“I loved it! It was exciting; my heart was pumping like hell! And I think having two cars fighting over one lap for the World Championship was amazing.”
Many people do not agree with the way the former Haas driver sees things. His ‘entertainment’ factor take over the last lap decision was subsequently not received well from quite a few on social media.
That’s such a silly way to justify things… Can you imagine if a soccer referee calls a penalty on the last minute of the match just so we can have a interesting ending?
— Diogo Sodré (@disodre) January 18, 2022
“I think the wrong conception is to think that the World Championship went on one lap. It was 22 Grands Prix and, if you look at the full season, Max had the puncture in Baku, Valtteri Bottas crashed into Verstappen in Hungary, there was the Silverstone race.”
Lady Luck was not with Hamilton in Abu Dhabi
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff promised Grosjean a test drive of their car the W10 earlier last year. While scheduled to take place during the French GP Weekend, sadly for the Frenchman, it didn’t come through. Still Romain continues to make it known that his support lies with Lewis Hamilton.
“I think, at the end, if we look at how many points were lost by Verstappen, not necessarily by his fault, he was the one that deserved more the championship. In the Abu Dhabi race, Lewis deserved the championship more. He got unlucky over the last lap. But as a race fan, I loved that last lap, and it was super exciting to watch.”
Also read: Romain Grosjean reveals fascinating first conversation with Lotus teammate Kimi Raikkonen
