Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Grosjean's 'rubbish' secret for Singapore success

Lotus F1 Team's Romain Grosjean revealed a key role that some household items have been known to play in his race build-up at Singapore.

The Singapore Grand Prix is unique in that the drivers effectively stay on European time for the duration of the event despite the change in regional time zones, thanks to the race being held late at night under floodlights rather than in the middle of the afternoon.

"It’s a race where we run unusual timings relative to the local day," explained Grosjean. "Once you get used to waking up in the afternoon and then going to bed early morning, then it gets to be just routine."

However, the change in timings does mean that Grosjean has been known to take some unusual steps to make sure he gets in his much-needed shut-eye during the event.

"It’s no secret that I love my sleep so one of the most important aspects of preparation for me is ensuring that my room stays dark in the morning when we’re still sleeping due to the timings we run.

"I hope the hotel has good blackout curtains! If it doesn’t then it’s not unknown for me to tape black rubbish bags to the windows to keep the light out and guarantee my sleep!"

Despite the potential problems of getting enough sleep, Grosjean is a big fan of Singapore on the Formula One calendar.

"I really love racing at this track and in fact I love the country as a whole," he said. The Singapore people are very friendly and it is nice to see so many coming downtown to the race.

"It has a completely unique vibe for the Grand Prix weekend and it takes on an ambience like nowhere else we go to."

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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.