Romain Grosjean hails Lotus’ fighting and racing spirit in the face of current hardship, and looks to “do some good stuff” across the five-race remainder of his Enstone career.
The Frenchman was recently confirmed as Haas F1 Team’s lead driver for its 2016 debut season, but also declared that he would have stayed if Renault’s anticipated take over had happened earlier.
With negotiations between the two parties dragging on, Lotus’ future in Formula One has been surrounded by heightened uncertainty amidst a series of financial and legal problems.
Having spent 10 years with his soon-to-be ex-team, Grosjean remains impressed by its ability to dismiss off-track issues and carry on delivering strong results, like a fine double points finish last time out at Suzuka.
“Enstone is quite a particular team in a way, the people stayed united and very strong together,” he said. “I think the funniest part was not having any hospitality in Japan.
“It didn’t matter at the end because what we want to do is to do our performance, we want to race, we want to race hard and go for it and that’s what we do.
“Just focussing on what you can do, what you can change and forgetting the outside part of it is the key. We have done it pretty well, with some fun and hopefully, with five races remaining, we can do some good stuff.”
While Grosjean is naturally eager to go out of Enstone with a bang, the 29-year-old is equally excited to embark on the next phase of his racing career.
“From a sporting point of view, I think the way Haas is coming to Formula One is very, very clever. He’s been successful in his business, he’s been successful in NASCAR.
“Coming alongside Ferrari – which is probably the biggest team in Formula One – makes sense, and for me to have a new experience with an American team can be very, very nice.”
Chris Medland's Russian Grand Prix preview
Eric Silbermann's Russian Grumpy Preview
F1i technical expert Nicolas Carpentiers takes us through exclusive pictures of Renault's power unit
Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
