Romain Grosjean believes that had he not put in the extra effort during the off-season with regards to his fitness, he would have struggled during the recent pre-season testing.
For 2017, cars have far more downforce and as a result, cornering speeds are so much quicker, and the Haas F1 Team driver feels that as a result that some races during the year could be more challenging affairs, although he was happy with the way his body reacted to the cars at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya during testing.
“I didn’t feel too bad. But let’s put it this way, if I’d been in the same condition as I was last year, I would have been destroyed,” said Grosjean. “We pushed really hard in our training. We may actually have overdone it.
“It’s not as bad as we thought it would be. The cars are going to be challenging and some of the races this year are going to be epic, especially where it’s warm with a high-speed track, it’ll be very hard on the body.
“I like the challenge and I like to think that we can always get more prepared and better trained. It felt good as we did the proper training. The cars are much harder to drive than last year.”
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen felt the opening day of pre-season testing was the hardest, particularly on the neck, but once into the swing of things, he was more at ease with the car and with the pressures.
“After the first day it was a bit tough,” said Magnussen. “I could definitely feel my neck. After my second day, and for the rest of the test, I was fine.
“It’s good to feel that the work had paid off and that I’m fit enough to race. I’ll keep working, and I’m even more motivated to train now that I can feel the difference. That’s really good.”
