One to watch: Romain Grosjean

One To Watch

Posted on

| Written by

Could Romain Grosjean be the next top French F1 driver? No, because he’s Swiss. But he does race under a French licence, so maybe he’ll get away with it.

He’s certainly got talent. Grosjean is currently leading the F3 Euroseries and is one of five racers on the Renault Driver Development programme.

Born April 17th, 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland, Grosjean races under a Swiss licence and won the 2003 Swiss Formula Renault series with ten wins from ten starts.

He then moved to French Formula Renault (SG Formula) and was seventh in 2004 (with one win) and champion in 2005 (10 wins). He also took two podiums in the Formula Renault Eurocup at Valencia.

Grosjean made his F3 debut at the blue riband Macau event at the end of the year – a demanding street circuit and not an ideal venue for a debut appearance. He took Loic Duval’s place in the Signature-Plus team, started 19th and finished ninth despite losing a several places on the first lap. He beat team mates Fabio Carbone and Guillaume Moreau and raced convincingly with many F3 regulars.

Stayed in the F3 Euroseries with Signature-Plus for 2006, the team hoping to recapture its form having switched from Opel to Mercedes engines. He ended the year 13th with only a single podium. But he also made an appearance in the British F3 event at Pau and won both races, from pole, setting fastest lap both times.

For 2007 he moved to the F3 Euroseries champions ASM, that steered Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta to victory in the last two seasons. After 12 races he leads S?âãÆ?é?®bastien Buemi by nine points with five wins. He took pole position at the Masters of F3 race at Zolder – but stalled at the start and finished 14th.

A step up to GP2 or the Renault World Series would be a likely move for him next. He’s currently on the same Renault Driver Development programme that eventually gave Heikki Kovalainen a shot at F1, so perhaps the latter will be his next step.

One To Watch


Browse all One To Watch articles

Photo: F3 Euroseries Media Service

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

4 comments on “One to watch: Romain Grosjean”

  1. Don’t these guys realise that it’s all in the name? There’s just no way anyone with a name that means Big John could ever be WDC – he should try out for western movies perhaps. And de Grassi, what chance does he stand? Groundsman at Wimbledon maybe. And who ever thought that a guy with a name like Button could make it? Imagine that – a Button as a champion. Tiddleywinks yes, F1 no.

    Mind you, it’s no good cheating with an obvious name either – Scott Speed proved that. You have to go for a name that everyone can pronounce but doesn’t make exaggerated claims. Avoid silly implied suggestions – Schumacher ran it close with one (not a load of) cobbler but retrieved it with his first name (now you understand why Ralf has no chance at all). Hunt nearly went too far the other way but saved himself by using a stuffy first name like James (if he’d been Jim, he would never have made it). And don’t throw Jim Clark at me – can you see a James Clark as champion?

    It’s all in the name, I tell you.

    1. LOL. Reading this in 2015 very funny!
      Grosjean did fine. Still racing in F1.
      Button won the WDC.
      Currently, de Grassi is leading the first ever Formula E championship after he won the first race.

      But I’ll give you another name that has seen many championships: Sebastian.
      This name gives you not only a leg up but a high probability for championships in motorsports, e.g. Vettel, Loeb, Ogier, Bourdais…

  2. These “Meet the Rookies” sections make me feel old – Romain’s three weeks younger than me and he’s in F3!

  3. I’m afraid tomorrow’s entry’s going to hurt even more…

Comments are closed.