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Romain Grosjean changing opinions in F1

At the end of his debut season in 2012 with the Lotus team many within the F1 paddock would have been perfectly happy to see the back of Romain Grosjean. Despite showing prodigious speed his race craft and spatial awareness, especially at starts, was found to be seriously lacking.

The result of this was many clumsy collisions with season low points being the first corner collision he cause at the Belgian GP which almost caused Fernando Alonso serious injury. After this the F1 stewards stepped in and gave Grosjean a one-race ban for the Italian GP as a punishment for his indiscretions during the season. The fact that Grosjean was the first driver to be banned since 1994 is an indication of the significance of the FIA punishment and the serious worries they had about Grosjean’s driving.

After professing to have learnt his lesson and be more cautious after returning from his ban, Grosjean’s race craft was again seriously questioned after he simply ran into the back of Mark Webber going into Turn 2 on the opening lap of the Japanese GP. This incident could be described at best as brain fade and at worst dangerous driving from Grosjean .

The Lotus team kept Grosjean for the 2013 season despite also publicly stating that his spatial awareness in battles and at the starts would have to improve for him to keep his drive past 2013. Initially he significantly improved his race craft and appeared to be getting into far fewer scrapes and accidents, although his blinding speed from 2012 appeared to be missing as he had only scored 26 points after Round 8 , compared to team mate’s Kimi Raikkonen’s haul of 98 points.

After a slight upturn in form over the next few races it appeared that Grosjean was beginning to make improvement’s with his driving. Then in the aftermath of the Italian GP it was announced that team leader Kimi Raikkonen would be moving to Ferrari for the 2014 season. This announcement would retrospectively appear to have had a major impact on Grosjean , as since this event Grosjean has stepped up significantly to outshine Raikkonen comfortably and become the undisputed team leader after 5 successive top 4 finishes including 4 podiums.

It isn’t just his speed which has impressed in the last few races as his race craft has also significantly improved . A good example of this is from the recent US GP where he managed to withstand immense pressure from Mark Webber in a much faster Red Bull late on to match his best ever result in F 1 of 2nd. This race single handedly showed that the Lotus team can be very happy that Grosjean will be leading the team in 2014 and that Grosjean is shaping up to be a front runner in F1 for the next few years at least.

Mark Webber also provides a good example of the 180 degree turn Romain Grosjean has made in F1 during his two years so far as he was highly critical of his driving after he had ruined his race in Japan last year, yet after the last few GP’s he has been speaking highly of his driving and leadership.

The biggest difficulty facing young drivers

For all racing drivers starting out in racing the ultimate dream is to reach Formula 1. This dream for many drivers is turning into the impossible dream with the direction F1 has taken in the last decade. The cost saving measure of severely limiting testing, has made it almost impossible now for many young drivers to gain any experience of an F1 car outside of a race weekend. A perfect example of this is the imminent announcement of Lotus, that Heikki Kovalainen will replace Kimi Raikkonen for the final two races of the 2013 season.

On the surface this appears to be a fairly innocuous appointment in the grand scheme of F1 because it’s only for two races. Yet this could have a major effect on the future of F1, and all because of a driver Lotus already has under contract.  Enter into the fray young Italian Davide Valsecchi. He’s a very quick driver who after a close fought battle claimed the 2012 GP2 title and despite 2012 being his fifth year in the category he was hopeful of stepping up to Formula One in 2013. Despite already having some experience in F1 as a reserve driver for the now Caterham team in 2011 to match his GP2 title he found offers in F1 hard to come by, and eventually took a reserve driver deal with Lotus for 2013. With little running during the year it appeared his chance had come when Raikkonen announced his decision to undergo back surgery and therefore miss the final two races.

On the other hand the team had different ideas and it appears instead offered the drive to half the F1 paddock as they sounded out Nico Hulkneberg and even Michael Schumacher before giving the drive to Heikki Kovalainen. This is a perfect example of the increasing struggle of many young drivers hoping to reach F1 as many teams are sticking with proven, experienced drivers rather than taking a chance on a young prospect. Indeed the only way to get into F1 for a young driver in the current climate appears to be waving millions of pounds worth of sponsorship at teams with rookies Esteban Gutierrez, Max Chilton and Geido Van Der Garde taking the route into F1 for 2013. All of these drivers incidentally, finished behind Valsecchi in GP2 in 2012. On the other hand, there are some teams on the grid willing to give young drivers a chance with Force India exemplifying this the most with the third driver/free practice role they have given to Paul Di Resta in 2010, Nico Hulkenberg  in 2011, Jules Bianchi in 2012 and now James Calado in 2013.

All of these drivers save from Calado have progressed to race drives with Williams also nurturing Valterri Bottas with free practice drives throughout the 2012 season to prepare him for a race drive in 2013. Indeed, free practices at F1 weekend are turning into extended test sessions for many teams looking to try out a new young charger they hope will be a future world champion.

Finally in reflection, this week has shown both sides of the young driver coin as despite the fact most of the headlines have been made by Davide Valsecchi being overlooked by Lotus in favour of Heikki Kovalained, it has also emerged this week that McLaren appear poised to give one of their young drivers in Kevin Magnussen a race drive with the team in 2014 replacing Sergio Perez therefore showing that for many drivers the choice of team in any F1 role can make or break your career. Nothing near there then.

Cook Islands make history with win

Last Sunday, at a lowly rugby league stadium deep in the heart of Wales the 3,270 strong crowd were witnesses to history. The smallest team at the tournament, the Cook Islands , managed to claim their first ever Rugby League World Cup victory in their second appearance at the tournament. To the disappointment of the majority partisan crowd the Cook Islands team bounced back from a disappointing opening game defeat against the USA to claim a deserved victory over an under-performing Welsh side. Wales squandered early possession which was punished by the Cook Islands team who deservedly led at half time 16-4. The second half saw more of the same early on with a quick try making it 22-4, before a late flurry of try’s and kicks from Wales left them only two points behind late on. The comeback was halted however by a fifth and final try from the Cook Islands to secure them a 28-24 victory in a game where the scoreline disguised the disparity between the teams.  This result in reality doesn’t mean a great deal to both teams as the USA have already secured the only quarter final berth in the group however the Cook Islands players celebrated like they had just won the tournament, with all of their celebrations being available on their Twitter and Facebook pages @CookIslands_RL and facebook.com/CookIslandsRugbyLeague to view.