Romain Grosjean achieves a Pole Position at the Grand Prix of Alabama
Romain Grosjean achieves a Pole Position at the Grand Prix of Alabama

Grosjean’s IndyCar performance could indicate the skill gap to F1

The Frenchman’s tear through the early part of the IndyCar season has set the benchmark for pace comparison in the two racing categories

Luke Edmonds 5 min read

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Two pole positions and a couple of podiums outline an impressive start to the 2023 campaign for Romain Grosjean

 

Romain Grosjean celebrates his most recent podium at the Alabama Grand Prix in the 2023 IndyCar championship (Photo Credits : @FollowAndretti on Twitter)

Romain Grosjean is currently an IndyCar driver for Andretti Autosport. This is Grosjean’s 3rd season in the sport and his 2nd year with the American team.  Before Grosjean’s entrance into IndyCar, he spent the 2012-15 season in the Lotus F1 team. This was followed by a stint with the Haas team in the 2016-2020 seasons.

After a crash in Bahrain at the end of the 2020 season that caused Grosjean to take the step out of F1, it was announced that he would be racing for Dale Coyne Racing in IndyCar for the 2021 season.

Grosjean would go on to achieve three podiums and a pole position in his first season in IndyCar. He was able to achieve his first pole-to-podium coming in only his 3rd race. He would later go on to qualify in the top 10 six more times that season. Grosjean led 44 of the 85 laps at the 2021 GMR Grand Prix, before finishing 5 seconds behind Rinus VeeKay.

 

Grosjean’s time in F1
Romain Grosjean at the 2020 Tuscan GP (Photo Credits: @HaasF1Team on Twitter)
Romain Grosjean at the 2020 Tuscan GP (Photo Credits: @HaasF1Team on Twitter)

When it comes to his success in Formula One though, a very different story rings true. The 2020 F1 season, the last of his career as it stands, featured only a singular point-scoring occasion. Grosjean was able to finish P9 at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix. This is a race that featured Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, and Mclaren retirements. On Lap 50 of 60 during this race, we saw Romain Grosjean jockeying for 7th position. He would then go on to be passed by Gasly and Hulkenberg after the Safety Car restart.

The 2019 season featured more of the same for Grosjean. He was only able to amount 3 point scoring races through the entirety of the campaign. His season total tallied 8 points. However, Kevin Magnussen, Haas teammate, was able to achieve a total of 20 points. This included a P6 in Australia, and a P7 in Spain. Throughout these two seasons, Haas had consistently been off the pace and finished P9 in the constructor’s standings in back-to-back years.

The 2018 season was our last opportunity to see Grosjean compete in F1. The Haas team finished P5 in the constructors, as well as achieving a 4-5 in Austria, with Grosjean leading Magnussen. This is not the story for the season though. Magnussen finished P9 in the drivers standings, with a lead of 19 points to Grosjean in P14.

 

The other side of the story

This is not to say that Grosjean didn’t have a great Formula One career. However, it is to say that what we saw in the later half of it was not exactly championship-contending material. Grosjean has since gone into the IndyCar championship and shown signs of a driver that we never got the full potential of.

Just like in F1, it takes some time to adapt. Obviously Grosjean did not go on to dominate the IndyCar scene in his first year, but it was an impressive outing. Grosjean’s comparison to his F1 teammate’s may also not be fair, as his IndyCar teammates have spent much less time in Motorsports than Grosjean.

Colton Herta, teammate of Romain Grosjean, has had a permanent IndyCar seat since the 2019 season, but has spent the last four years in the Andretti family.

It is also an easy comparison to say, “How can you expect him to compete in the Haas car that he was always presented with?” While I will agree with this sentiment, the one thing that we are always able to look at is equal machinery comparison. Grosjean almost never had the leg up. What makes the difference in IndyCar?

 

The driving factor in the ‘change of pace’

IndyCar performs as a spec series. This means that every team has the same chassis and chooses between two engine suppliers of incredibly similar performance. When Grosjean first spoke about his competitive ability in the series, he said this:

“The last time I got really the chance to have the same tools as the others was 2011 in GP2. I was close to win a few times in Formula 1, but I was also in the era with Raikkonen and Vettel who dominated everything. I was close few times, but not on an every-race basis.” – via RaceFans.net

 

Grosjean celebrates his most recent Pole Position in Alabama
Grosjean’s celebration after his most recent IndyCar Pole Position in Alabama (Image Credit: @FollowAdretti on Twitter)

This season, after four races, Grosjean has shown that he absolutely has the ability to fight for poles, wins, and the championship. He qualified on pole for the maiden race of the season before a DNF, as well as running in the top-5 in Texas from laps 62-225, before he once again suffered a DNF. The races that he has finished though are to be looked fondly on, as his P3 start in Long Beach led to a podium finish. He also started on Pole for the Alabama Indy Grand Prix before finishing in P2.

 

The conversation for the ages

Grosjean is not the only driver to find success in IndyCar after a less-than-competitive career in Formula One. Former Sauber F1 driver, Marcus Ericsson, never finished higher than P17 in the F1 Drivers Championship, but currently leads the IndyCar standings. Ericsson released a tweet in March of 2022 after Magnusson’s return to F1 when he topped the timing charts.

This turned out to be a bit of cheeky banter from the former F1 driver, but rings home a sentiment that can and will be argued for the rest of open-wheeled, single-seater history.

I think that if Grosjean has shown us anything this year, it is that the best of the best can perform at any level. Any driver on the F1 grid could break off, and remain competitive under the umbrella of any motorsport. Since Formula One has both junior categories in Formula 2 and Formula 3, we don’t see the IndyCar to F1 pipeline as much as we see the reversal of it, but is something that teams should look at in the future.

 

Featured Image Credit: @FollowAndretti on Twittter

9 Comments

  1. We can see many top 10-15 MotoGP riders past and present moving to SBK and success competing there and some become champions. It isn’t many on the other way around even they are/were top 5-10 SBK riders. These phenomena also happen when F1 top 10-15 drivers go for refugee competing in Indy. However, not so may in vice versa.

    Reply

  2. Why F1 drivers refuge go to racing in Indy has mostly succeeded than the other way around is because of the talent pool difference. F1 drivers talent pool > Indy driver talent pool. You would also see MotoGP riders refuge has mostly succeeded when move to SBK rather the other way around. MotoGP talent pool > SBK riders talent pool.

    Reply

  3. In indy all cars are competitive while in f1 haas is 4 sec off pace. In racing rarely is the fastest person the one who makes it to f1, its the person who can grease knobs, get sponsors, and maybe comes with a fat cheque. If anything its exactly the opposite.

    Reply

  4. I think it’s more of an indication of lack of parity in f1. Given equal equipment the back half of the f1 grid would likely be in contention at Least on occasion. The car is so much of a factor in f1. You just have to look at how Russell nearly won when subbing for Hamilton after struggling to even get in the points in a Williams all year to see that.

    Meanwhile Grosjean has no wins in indy car while Scott Mclaughlin who came in at the same time has four. Three of his andretti team mates have also won while he was in indy car. He’s not exactly dominating indy car or even his team mates. I’d put money on at least the top five of indy car being competitive in f1 if given an opportunity in a top car.

    Reply

  5. Absolutely interesting…and the kind of info that sparks interest for Indy series for those of us …still totally committed to Formula 1

    Reply

  6. One of 2 things is happening here. Either the author knows absolutely nothing about racing, or has such a blind bias for F1 they are will to overlook every single fact that proves this article is utter nonsense.
    The reason unsuccessful F1 drivers can find success in Indycar is actually very simple. Indycar has 1 chassis that everyone must use and a choice of 2 engines. This makes for an ultra level playing field that allows for over a dozen drivers the opportunity to win any given race.
    In F1 every team is allowed to build their own chassis and own engines, some teams do buy engines or chassis from other teams, but those teams are not competitive. If you put Max, Charles, or Lewis in a BWT, Alpha Tauri, or McLaren they will not be winning, not even close. To prove my point look at George Russell, 2 years ago he was lucky to score points, after moving to Mercedes he usually outscores Lewis. Ricardo went from contending for wins at redbull to living outside the top 10 at McLaren.
    F1 drivers are definitely top notch drivers, but dont lie to yourself or others, in F1, 90% of a drivers finishing position is predetermined by which car they drive.

    Reply

  7. I don’t think there’s a skill gap. I think the gap is merely the effect of F1 being predominantly an engineering series. Driver talent matters, but ultimately it’s the car that makes the difference. You simply can’t compare driver skill effectly in F1, because you put Verstappenin a Williams or Haas car and regardless of his talent, he’d never win a race. All he can do is put in the best performance the car is capable of doing.

    Indycar also suffers from same gap, despite being a spec series with focus on dampers and engine mapping. However the engineering gap is significantly less impactful because driver skill and team strategies more than make up the difference between top teams and lowly backmarkers. Verstappen would likely be just as successful if not more so than Grosjean did in his first year with Dale Coyne Racing.

    I think we are going find that Grosjean is a much more talented driver than what people thought of him in F1. Indycar has way of letting the driver’s showcase themselves without the burdens of inadequacies of the car.

    Reply

  8. He drives for a top tier Indy car team now, Haas wasn’t a top tier F1 team at his time, they are getting better now.

    Reply

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