Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Grosjean eager to test new Haas

Romain Grosjean says he is eager to test the first Haas F1 car having spent time with his new employers following the United States Grand Prix.

Haas announced Grosjean as one of its drivers for 2016 back in September, with owner Gene Haas saying he expects the Frenchman to lead the team next season. With both Haas and team principal Guenther Steiner present during the race weekend in Austin, Grosjean then spent time with the pair after the race weekend and says he is eager to see how strong a car it can produce.

“I’m happy that I signed for Haas, it’s going to be a great year and I believe it’s going to be good,” Grosjean said. “Gene and Guenther came [to Austin] so we keep talking about 2016 plans.

“On Monday I went to visit Haas Automation with Gene and Guenther and I was having dinner thinking I would like it to be the day before winter testing when we discover whether it’s a good car or not. All exciting, very good project I think.”

With Esteban Gutierrez set to be named as the team’s second driver later today, Grosjean says he hopes his new team-mate can be quick enough to challenge him.

“All I want is a quick driver. I had [Fernando] Alonso, [Kimi] Raikkonen, Pastor [Maldonado] - all very different, probably the first two had more experience as they were world champions, so it was great to grow up alongside them. Pastor is also very quick so I’m always trying to find out the data, what he is doing and find the data, what he’s doing and how I can improve myself. It always keeps you on your toes.”

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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.