Formula drivers should be more gentlemanly on the track, says Romain Grosjean

Romain Grosjean

Grosjean: F1 drivers should be more gentlemanly on the track

He wants calmer opening laps.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 1 October 2019 18:30

Romain Grosjean has called on F1 driving colleagues to be more “gentlemanly” during races, particularly in the first lap, following the Russian Grand Prix which saw him retire early after crashing.

Shortly after Lights Out, Grosjean found himself close to Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniel Ricciardo, with the trio coming together, which subsequently saw the Frenchman’s tyre come loose and fly into the air.

Grosjean laments the fact that drivers can work hard all week only to see their GP fortunes go up in smoke so quickly.

"I think it was very avoidable," he suggested to Autosport.

"I left plenty of room on the right-hand side. Three in that corner was never going to work. Who's fault was it? I'll let you judge from the two on the right.

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"You break your balls all weekend long to get a good car and work really hard, you're taken off in Turn 4 of a 53-lap race by a very aggressive move, so I'm not very happy.

"The decision, racing incident, it's lap one of the race, why not? But I felt like the last few first laps have been quite aggressive in general.

“Maybe we should be a bit more gentlemanly between us, and think that there's a long race ahead."

Even though the Haas driver does not name names, his comments suggest he believes Giovinazzi and Ricciardo were too aggressive in their approach to the turn.

"I got a penalty in Austin last year for lap one! I don't care, racing is good at the moment, and the FIA is doing a good job,” he responded when asked why drivers aren’t punished more for first-lap incidents.

"Obviously when you're taken off you're pissed off, especially in our situation, when we don't know when is the next time we'll have a competitive car, so it puts a lot of pressure on us.

"Kevin [Magnussen] did a good race, and showed we were good this weekend, so that's good for the team.

"But it's hard to digest when you know you have a shot at something good.

"I'm not blaming anyone, I just think it was very avoidable and maybe a bit too aggressive from some."