Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}French: [ʁɔmɛ̃ ɡʁoʒɑ̃]; born 17 April 1986) is a French and Swiss professional racing driver, competing under the French flag. He currently drives in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing team. Grosjean previously spent nine full-time seasons in Formula One for a variety of teams, picking up 10 podiums, all with Lotus.
At Spa Grosjean caused a multi-car pile-up at the start of the race, with Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all eliminated from the race as well as Grosjean; the incident was started when Grosjean drove into Hamilton on the approach to the La Source corner. Grosjean was given a one race ban post-race (the first driver to be banned since Michael Schumacher in 1994), as well as a fine of €50,000, with the FIA saying in a statement "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations, which had the potential to cause injury to others. It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race. The stewards note [that] the team conceded the action was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty." He was replaced for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix by Lotus test and reserve driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio. His team boss, Éric Boullier said that Grosjean learned an important lesson following his ban, however at the Japanese Grand Prix, Grosjean crashed into Mark Webber at the first corner with Webber branding him a "first lap nutcase". Grosjean's actions were condemned by many drivers in the paddock. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident. In São Paulo Grosjean hit the back of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT in qualifying.
Grosjean quickly adapted to IndyCar racing and immediately showed pace. He recorded three podium finishes on the season; two second-place finishes at both rounds on the IMS Road Course and a third-place finish at Laguna Seca. In addition he made the final round of qualifying at both rounds on the IMS Road Course and Detroit, Nashville, and Long Beach. The highpoint of Grosjean's season was at the first round at Indianapolis, where after sitting out for two weeks he returned and out qualified fellow rookie Scott McLaughlin , Josef Newgarden, Jack Harvey, Conor Daly, and Alex Palou to earn his first IndyCar pole position and first pole position since May 2011, when he was on pole in GP2 at Istanbul Park with DAMS. He went on to finish in second place behind winner Rinus VeeKay. Other highlights included making up ten positions at Laguna Seca, several passes of which he made at the famed "Corkscrew", the location of Alex Zanardi's iconic pass on Bryan Herta in 1996, and his first ever oval race at Gateway, where he recorded the most overtakes for the race despite finishing fourteenth. Grosjean also recorded top ten finishes at Barber, Road America, and Mid-Ohio.
Grosjean won all ten rounds of the 2003 Formula Lista Junior championship and moved to the French Formula Renault championship for 2004. He was seventh in that first season with one win and was champion in 2005 with ten victories. He also appeared in the Formula Renault Eurocup and finished on the podium twice in Valencia. With his results and potential in the Formula Renault series, Grosjean joined the Renault Driver Development programme for the continuation of his career.
A new rule for the 2014 season allowed the drivers to pick a car number to use for their entire career. Grosjean was awarded his first choice of number 8. He explained his choice of number on his Facebook page: "Simply I like this number, plus it has some signification to me. My wife was born on 8 December, we started dating in 2008 and besides, to my eyes my son is the 8th wonder of the world. That's why I picked up number 8." Among all the races in 2014, he was only able to score on two occasions and claim 8 points.
He dominated the 2005 French Formula Renault championship at his first attempt and joined the Renault young driver programme. He was the 2007 Formula 3 Euro Series drivers' champion. In 2008, he became the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion and came fourth in his first year in GP2. In 2009 he made his Formula One debut for Renault at the European Grand Prix and came fourth again in GP2 despite missing the final eight races. After being dropped by Renault, he returned to junior formulae, winning the 2010 Auto GP championship at the first attempt and winning the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and GP2 Series becoming the first – and as of 2021 , only – two-time GP2 Asia champion and the only driver to hold both the GP2 Asia series and main GP2 series titles simultaneously. Due to the Asia and Main GP2 series being discontinued, this will likely remain true for the foreseeable future.
Grosjean was confirmed as Renault's test driver for 2008, replacing Nelson Piquet Jr., who graduated to a race seat. He drove a Formula One car for the first time at the UK round of the 2008 World Series by Renault weekend at Silverstone on 7 and 8 June 2008, where he gave a number of demonstrations of the previous year's R27 car.
On 9 December 2011, it was announced that Grosjean would make his comeback to Formula One in 2012, taking the second seat at the newly renamed Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault, the team that Grosjean raced with in 2009) alongside 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen.
On 31 January 2010, after the end of the season news reports had doubts that Grosjean would keep his seat into 2010, Renault confirmed that Grosjean's former GP2 teammate at the Addax Team, Vitaly Petrov would be the team's second driver alongside Robert Kubica for the 2010 season, leaving Grosjean without a Formula One drive for 2010. However, in September 2010, it was confirmed by tyre manufacturer Pirelli that Grosjean would complete a test for the company, in anticipation of their return to supplying tyres to the F1 grid in 2011. Grosjean replaced Nick Heidfeld, who left his testing duties to take up a race seat at Sauber.
After leaving Formula One, Grosjean became involved in sportscar racing. In March 2010, Grosjean secured a drive in the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship, driving a Ford GT1 for the Matech Competition team alongside German driver Thomas Mutsch. The pairing won the opening Championship Race of the season in Abu Dhabi and added a second victory at Brno in May to lead the standings after the first three rounds of the season.
In June 2010, Grosjean made a return to single-seaters, racing for the DAMS team in the third round of the Auto GP season at Spa-Francorchamps. After dominating practice and taking pole position, he won the feature race before finishing second to Carlos Iaconelli in the sprint event. Over the course of the weekend, Grosjean accumulated 18 points out of a possible 19 on offer and took away €80,000 prize money as the event's top points scorer. He went on to win three more races to take the title at Monza 16 points ahead of runner-up Edoardo Piscopo.
In June 2010, Grosjean made his debut in the famous Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, sharing a Ford GT1 with Mutsch and Jonathan Hirschi. After qualifying third in the LMGT1 class, they were forced to retire from the race after 171 laps.
On 20 July 2010, Grosjean announced that he would return to GP2 with the DAMS team. He replaced the then Renault test driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio for the German round of the championship. He later substituted for D'Ambrosio's injured teammate, Ho-Pin Tung, from the Belgian round onwards (despite Tung recovering and returning to the series with a different team), finishing 3rd in Belgium and Abu Dhabi to take fourteenth place in the drivers' standings, only two positions behind D'Ambrosio.
At the start of 2011, Grosjean returned to the newly branded Lotus Renault GP team as one of five test drivers along with Bruno Senna, Ho-Pin Tung, Jan Charouz and Fairuz Fauzy. Lotus Renault had planned to run Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov throughout 2011 but Kubica had a horrific rally accident and was unable to drive during 2011. Former BMW Sauber teammate Nick Heidfeld replaced Kubica for the first 11 races before himself being replaced by Senna from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. In late October 2011, Lotus Renault announced that Grosjean would drive in the first Friday free practice session in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (replacing Senna) and the Brazilian Grand Prix (replacing Petrov).
In 2012, Grosjean returned to Formula One with the Lotus F1 Team, alongside Kimi Räikkönen. He took his first Formula One podium at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix and took his first fastest lap in the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. He became the first driver since 1994 to receive a race ban after causing a multi-car pile-up, at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. In 2013 he remained with Lotus, taking six podiums. He drove for Lotus again alongside Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in the 2014 and 2015 seasons and achieved a podium finish at the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix before moving to Haas from 2016 to 2020. In what would be his final Formula One race, Grosjean survived a dramatic crash during the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix when his car separated in two and caught fire after penetrating a metal guardrail on the first lap. Grosjean sustained minor burns and credited the halo with saving his life.
Grosjean married French journalist and television presenter Marion Jollès on 27 June 2012 in Chamonix. They have been together since 2008. On 29 July 2013, Marion gave birth to a son. They have a second child who was born on 16 May 2015 and a daughter born on 31 December 2017. After Grosjean signed with Andretti Autosport and committed to racing full time in the IndyCar series he announced that he and his family would be moving to Miami due to the city's selection of French-language schools and the ability to get direct flights between Miami and Paris.
On 17 December 2012, it was confirmed that Grosjean would stay at Lotus for the 2013 season.
On 29 November 2013, it was confirmed that Grosjean would continue with Lotus in 2014.
In 2014 Grosjean was featured in French disc jockey David Guetta's music video titled "Dangerous".
In 2015, Lotus produced a much better car, which was powered by a Mercedes engine. Grosjean showed great potential in testing, but mechanical problems in Australia and a spin after contact with Sergio Pérez in Malaysia prevented Grosjean from scoring points. But after the first two troubled races, Grosjean recorded good performances in China and Bahrain, finishing 7th on both occasions. In Spain, Lotus struggled in practice and qualifying and Grosjean missed out on Q3 for the first time in the season. But in the race, his pace improved and he finished 8th, despite making contact with Pastor Maldonado in the opening laps and a mistake in the pits, both of which cost him some time. In Monaco, Grosjean was on for his fourth consecutive points finish, despite a grid penalty for a gearbox change, but he was hit by Max Verstappen while battling for position. Grosjean managed to rejoin, but lost time and finished 12th.
On 29 September 2015, it was announced that Grosjean would race for the Haas F1 Team, who were joining the Formula One grid for the 2016 season. He was partnered by former Sauber driver and Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutiérrez. In the team's first race, the Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean finished sixth to record Haas' first points and making them the first team since Toyota Racing to score points in their debut. He was eventually voted Formula One's first Driver of the Day. Grosjean scored again in the following Bahrain Grand Prix by finishing in fifth position, winning Driver of the Day again.
Following Jenson Button's retirement from full-time racing, the members of the GPDA elected Grosjean to replace Button as one of the directors of the GPDA in May 2017.
In October 2017 Grosjean launched Cuisine et Confidences, a cookbook he authored with his wife.
He also has his own YouTube Channel called Romain Grosjean Official with 255K subscribers which he launched in November 2017.
Haas retained Grosjean for the 2018 season where he again partnered Magnussen. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Grosjean crashed behind the safety car whilst running in 6th place. His engineer incorrectly blamed the cause of the crash on Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson, saying, "I think Ericsson hit us." At the Spanish Grand Prix, Grosjean was the cause of a crash on the opening lap. Whilst making his way through turn 3, he lost control of his Haas after running through dirty air. This caused him to spin across the track into the path of the cars behind him, causing a large amount of smoke in the process. He was then hit by Hülkenberg and Gasly, eliminating all three from the race. In the Austrian Grand Prix, Grosjean finished 4th, his best result in his career at Haas, and his first points finish in 2018. Grosjean was disqualified from the Italian Grand Prix after the floor of his car was found to be illegal, taking away a 6th-place finish; although the team appealed this, the decision was upheld. Grosjean finished the season 14th with 37 points.
The impact was measured at 67 g (660 m/s ; 2,200 ft/s ). He was able to exit the car unaided after 28 seconds, and was helped away from the crash scene by Alan van der Merwe and Ian Roberts, with minor burn injuries to his hands and ankles before being airlifted to a nearby military hospital. The crash caused a red flag for more than an hour to recover the chassis and repair the damaged barrier section. The halo-head protective device, introduced in Formula One in 2018, was credited with saving his life: it sheltered Grosjean's head and body from coming into contact with the barrier upon collision. Grosjean ultimately missed the last two races of the season, and was replaced by Pietro Fittipaldi.
On 28 September 2018 it was confirmed that Haas would retain Grosjean for the 2019 season, again partnering Magnussen. Like his 2018 season, Grosjean's 2019 was plagued with reliability issues, poor luck and driver errors. Additionally, the Haas VF-19 suffered from poor pace throughout the season, often qualifying well but falling far behind during races.
On 19 September 2019, Haas announced that Grosjean would remain with the team for the 2020 season alongside Magnussen.
Grosjean drove Andretti Autosport's No. 28 DHL Honda entry in the 2022 season, replacing the outgoing Ryan Hunter-Reay. Grosjean underwent his rookie orientation at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 5, 2021, and confirmed that he will be racing in the 2022 Indianapolis 500 along with the entire 2022 schedule. Grosjean picked up his first podium with Andretti Autosport at Long Beach, nearly taking the win from Josef Newgarden before an accident caused by Takuma Sato caused the race to finish under caution. He managed to advance to Q2 in his first Indianapolis 500 but ultimately crashed out of the race. Overall 2022 was a difficult season for Grosjean, as he struggled with bad luck and on track contact with teammates and other drivers.
For 2021 Grosjean competed on a joint deal between Dale Coyne Racing and Rick Ware Racing with backing from Honda. Grosjean was scheduled to only participate in the street and road course events in the 2021 season but he later announced after the Indianapolis 500 that he would run the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 to get experience racing on ovals for a potential full schedule in 2022. Because his only oval race would be on what IndyCar considers a short oval Haas F1 Team colleague Pietro Fittipaldi was signed to replace Grosjean for IndyCar's three races on superspeedways, the double header at Texas Motor Speedway and the 2021 Indianapolis 500.
In 2023 Grosjean won the pole at the season opener but a late race collision with Scott McLaughlin ended his chances of a victory. He again crashed out at Texas when fighting for a podium finish before picking up two consecutive second place finishes at Long Beach and Barber. The rest of the season was not a success as he suffered numerous DNFs and posted only one top-ten finish in the remaining 13 races.