Romain Grosjean Grosjean GP2 experience will aid IndyCar effort

Romain Grosjean

Grosjean GP2 experience will aid IndyCar effort

Grosjean has not driven any other racing car other than F1 machinery for 10 years

Ewan Gale

Sunday 21 February 2021 10:54

Romain Grosjean has said he will have to call upon his experience of junior category GP2 when making his IndyCar debut.

Grosjean will race for Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing in IndyCar this season after parting company with the Haas Formula 1 team at the end of last year.

Ahead of his debut at the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama in April, Grosjean revealed he had sought advice from former IndyCar champion and fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud as well as ex-F1 driver Marcus Ericsson - who competes for Chip Ganassi.

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"I will be a rookie," he said. "I have done 200 grands prix in Formula 1 but the last time I drove another car which is probably similar to an IndyCar was 2011, GP2.

"No power steering and I guess it will be the same type of cars. So I mean a lot to learn. The circuits, first of all. There is a lot of good street courses that change.

"The tyres, the refuelling, the rolling starts and the way they operate and so on. I am not expecting to win race one but for sure, I am ready to take the challenge to learn which is something to keep in mind.

"I have been talking to Simon Pagenaud a bit, also with Marcus Ericsson, which is nice."

He added: "Marcus has been very helpful in understanding IndyCar and telling me about it so I think I am going to have a lot of fun.

"I can’t wait to try the car on the 27th February. That is where I am going to learn a little bit more about it.”

The deal to take Grosjean across to IndyCar only includes street and road course events after the Frenchman declined a full-season invite in the aftermath of his fiery accident at last year's Bahrain Grand Prix.

However, Grosjean has not discarded the idea of oval racing altogether, but believes now is not the right time to ply his trade at the high-speed superspeedways.

“I think first I will do a test at some point and see how I feel," he explained. "But right now, it is a no.

"I think the Indy 500 test is very early in the season. I believe it is March 1. But you need to do the test and I won’t do that one.

"So definitely, the Indy 500 I won’t be racing. Am I going to go? There is an option that I may go and watch it because it is one of the biggest races in the world.”