Romain Grosjean has had his say about some of his previous team-mates in Formula 1, and he believes Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen are ‘surprisingly’ similar.
Alonso was Grosjean’s first team-mate in the sport when he debuted for the Renault F1 Team in 2009, and when his second stint in Formula 1 started in 2012, he was partnered by Räikkönen in the Lotus F1 Team.
Current Haas F1 Team racer Grosjean says that both drivers were focused from the moment free practice began on Friday morning on getting the car set-up for Sunday’s race, and neither driver would be particularly bothered if they were off the pace during the practice sessions.
“I started in Formula 1 next to Alonso, then I came back next to Raikkonen, and I’ve had Kevin [Magnussen] now so yeah, really, really tough one,” said Grosjean in an Instagram Live interview. “I learned a lot from Fernando and Kimi, in kind of the same way, surprisingly.”
“A lot of people think they’re very different, but the way they started FP1 was looking at Sunday at 3.10 pm – that’s all that mattered.
“They didn’t care if they were fast or slow in free practice, they were just setting up to get ready for the race and when you are a youngster you want to be fast in every session – then you learn about it and you think: ‘OK this is the conditions we’re having [now], but on Sunday, they’ll be a little bit different, so let’s change it and work around that’.”
Grosjean on Magnussen: “I wasn’t happy with him before I was his team-mate”
Speaking about his current team-mate, Grosjean says he initially wasn’t happy with Kevin Magnussen prior to the Dane joining Haas, but as they head into their fourth consecutive year together, his opinion has completely changed.
“Well, he’s fast. He’s really fast,” said Grosjean. “So Kev is a tough team-mate to beat. He’s a proper Viking, he’ll never let it go. He’s amazing.
“I wasn’t happy with him before I was his team-mate. But when you’re in the same team, you know he fights as hard as he can to bring points to the team, it’s amazing.”
