Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas move good for Grosjean - Gastaldi

Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi says next year’s switch to the new Haas F1 Team will be good for Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman will leave Lotus at the end of the year to move to Haas, marking the first time he has changed teams in his F1 career having only raced for the Enstone-based team under its guises of Lotus and formerly Renault.

Ahead of what Grosjean admits will be an “emotional” last race in Abu Dhabi this weekend, Gastaldi says comments from former F1 drivers who made moves after long spells with one team have helped him understand Grosjean’s reasons for leaving.

“I think he will still be part of Enstone and we are going to stay in touch,” Gastaldi told F1i. “For him it is a different step in his career and of course it will be emotional for everyone but we will still see him. I only wish him well because he deserves it and he has done a fantastic job for the team with the tools that we gave him so far.

“I was talking to some retired drivers recently and they all said it’s good for the drivers to have other options, other experiences and Romain has been working for Enstone since he moved from GP2 so I think it’s good for him. Probably it will be emotional for him but he will be around so we will see him.”

Grosjean has started 82 races so far for Lotus and Renault, finishing twice on two occasions and third a further eight times.

Technical analysis - Brazil

Use the red tabs on either side of the screen to scroll through more Formula One news and features

Click here for a more light-hearted look at the Brazilian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.