Washington: French driver Romain Grosjean, winless in five Formula One seasons, was named on Tuesday as the new driver for the Haas F1 Team that will enter the series next year.
The first American-led F1 entry in 30 years has an experienced driver as 29-year-old Grosjean, with 10 podiums in 78 F1 races, announced his departure from the financially struggling Lotus squad at the team’s North Carolina headquarters.
“It would have been easy to stay there,” Grosjean said. “But I want to win races and I want to win championships and I have taken a step in a good direction to achieve that.”
Grosjean, whose only podium since 2013 was a third-place effort last month at the Belgian Grand Prix, has two runner-up F1 showings, at the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix and 2013 US Grand Prix.
“We’re kind of surprised to get a driver of his experience to the team and he’s going to work a lot harder than he thinks,” team founder and chairman Gene Haas said.
“With Romain, his maturity will lend itself to us being able to progress as a team. He’s a bright young person so I think he’s going to help a lot.”
Haas, a long-time owner in the US stock car series, says extra planning time in the development of the team and car will help his team avoid the same fate as three past US-based F1 failures.
“Our strategy is different from what those teams faced,” he said. “They had a time constraint. They had six months to put a whole team together. What tripped up the previous teams is they didn’t allow enough time to build their cars. We’re taking quite a bit more time to get our car prepared.
“My primary purpose here is to show that, as an American manufacturer, we can compete in the most competitive car racing series in the world. Whatever it takes to get that right car on the grid is what we’re looking for.”
— AFP
