“Romain was one of the best”- Guenther Steiner claims that Romain Grosjean left Haas in 2020 never got enough credit for his ability.
Romain Grosjean was an early bloomer when he debuted for Lotus in 2011 and successfully represented the team until the end of 2015 season, with odd podiums in between.
From 2016, he raced under Guenther Steiner’s leadership, and with limited resources at the behest of the American team, Grosjean never managed to emerge from the last of the paddock.
With fours years of no success, Haas decided to move on and replaced Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen’s duo with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. But Steiner, despite his decision, claims that Grosjean deserved more recognition.
Asked if he felt Grosjean sometimes failed to get the credit he deserved, Haas team boss Steiner told Motorsport.com: “Yes. He was, for sure, very fast. On a good day, Romain was one of the best ones out there.
“But he sometimes pushed and tried too hard. Then you see those errors. He just went over the limit, and then the errors come.”
Kevin Magnussen agrees
The partnership of Magnussen and Grosjean backed Haas for four years, and for the Danish race driver, Grosjean is somewhat the driver as described by Steiner.
“There have been some mistakes that he’s made that have been big, say the Baku one [in 2018], where he crashed under the safety car,” Magnussen told Motorsport.com.
“That got so much attention, but if you look at what position he was in when he crashed, that was unbelievable. I think it was fourth or something, in the Haas! Nobody ever talks about that. Had he not crashed under the safety car, he would have had an unbelievable result in that race.
“It takes away from what an absolutely amazing driver that he is. Over the last years, I think him being in an uncompetitive car and just meant it’s been hard for him to really show.
“But then people have forgotten what he did back in 2012, 2013, those years where he was on the podium so many times. It’s only down to bad luck he didn’t win a race on quite a few occasions.
“That’s just how the world works at the moment. Certainly from the inside, being his teammate, I admire him for the talent he is.”
