Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Grosjean disappointed in Verstappen’s stance

Romain Grosjean says he is disappointed Max Verstappen has not apologised to him and accepted his mistakes following their Monaco Grand Prix collision.

Verstappen hit the rear of Grosjean’s Lotus approaching Ste Devote, launching the Toro Rosso in to the barrier at high speed. While Verstappen was subsequently penalised for the incident, he accused Grosjean of brake-testing him before the punishment was announced. With the 17-year-old saying he wouldn’t change the way he approached the situation in future, Grosjean says he is disappointed to not see the Toro Rosso rookie accepting he made a mistake.

“I’ve been doing mistakes, quite a lot of them, but I’ve learned from them and then I went on the podium,” Grosjean said. “So there are not any problems with having a crash or making a mistake in the race, I think the only key is to admit, learn from it and then apologise to the people you crash in to.”

Asked if Verstappen has apologised to him since Monaco, Grosjean replied: “No.

“It was [disappointing] because we went to the stewards after the grand prix and I tapped him on the back thinking ‘OK guys’ … he could say I’m sorry, rather than just going on to say I brake tested him, which is completely wrong because I actually braked later than the lap before. It’s just not the way we like things to happen.

“As I say, as long as you learn from them then you’re allowed to make mistakes. They sometimes happen but just learn from it.

“Max is really, really talented and what he has been doing is quite impressive, but he’s made a mistake. I just find it a bit disappointing that he doesn’t learn from it. Even this morning at the press conference he said he’s going to do the same thing and drive the same way. Formula One is dangerous, so you just need to keep that in mind.”

And Grosjean says his example should be one which Verstappen looks at, with the Frenchman having received heavy criticism from Mark Webber in his earlier years at Lotus.

“To me it’s a closed matter. I’ve learned from the past, I’ve been treated like the ‘first-lap nutcase’ which hurts a little bit. Thank you Mark! But it made me much stronger and I’ve learned from it. The only thing I can wish from him is that he realises and learns from that and then I’m sure he’s going to have some very successful races.”

Click here for technical analysis of the braking challenge at the Canadian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.