Haas brake struggles 'simply dangerous' - Grosjean

Romain Grosjean was far from happy with how his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend went.

The Haas F1 Team driver was heard to make frequent complaints over the team radio about the brakes on his VF-17. He was one of several drivers to make repeated visits down escape roads during the weekend.

In an unusual move, Grosjean declined to make any media comments following the race. However, he did speak briefly with French broadcaster Canal Plus after finishing in a disappointing 13th place.

"We didn't have the slightest hope of success the whole weekend," he declared.

"We need to ask ourselves questions and find answers," he continued. "It's unacceptable that in the course of the five weekend sessions, the same problem on one car cannot be solved.

"At one point I even had doubts about my own safety," he added. "The situation is simply dangerous."

By contrast, his team mate Kevin Magnussen enjoyed one of his best outings yet for the team. At one point he was running as high as third place, before finally crossing the line in seventh. That's Haas' best result so far in 2017.

Grosjean pissed off by constant negative radio broadcasts

Magnussen said that his car had been handling well in Baku, and that he'd had good balance in the car for the race. However he did admit that he, too, had suffered from issues with the brakes

"Romain had a tough outing," said team principal Guenther Steiner.

"I hope, in a few more races, we’ll forget about talking about brakes and just use them like everybody else.

"As a team we need to get on top of that, and we will. Then we can be consistently in the points with two cars."

Grosjean had also expressed his unhappiness over how his radio transmissions with the Haas pit wall were being used by broadcasters. He felt that his comments about brakes had been unfairly picked on by broadcasters.

"When I'm saying things, it's just for the team, it's not for the outside world. It's our internal business," he said.

"I've been broadcast much more than others," he pointed out. "I just feel that they have been a bit unfair, and I'm tired."

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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.