Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Grosjean wanted to drive for Renault

Romain Grosjean has revealed he would have stayed with Lotus if Renault had moved more quickly in attempting to take over the team.

Renault's proposed takeover of Lotus has been dragging on for a number of months, with a Letter of Intent finally being signed on Monday in order to help stave off legal action from HMRC over an unpaid tax bill. However, the letter only states it is “regarding the potential acquisition by Renault of a controlling stake in Lotus F1 Team Ltd.”

Grosjean confirmed his switch to the new Haas team on Tuesday, but he admits he would have not made the move if Renault had signalled its intentions earlier.

"I was the first one who wanted to be part of the Renault project," Grosjean told the BBC. "If they had come earlier I would have stayed, but I met with Haas, they made an approach and it was attractive."

However, Grosjean admits he wanted to get closer to Ferrari, with F1i understanding he was making overtures towards the team as early as 2013.

"The fact that Haas is close to Ferrari made it very appealing. Not because I'm thinking about Ferrari in one, two or three years, but it does bring me closer for sure.

"They'll look at what we do. The better job I do there the better chance I have of getting a seat with Ferrari one day."

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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.