Speaking at an IndyCar media conference, the newly appointed driver of the #28 Andretti Autosport-Honda was asked what he thought of his former peers Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Max Verstappen wrestling over the 2021 title in Abu Dhabi.
“I loved it!” responded Grosjean. “It was exciting, my heart was pumping like hell. And I think having two cars fighting over one lap for the World Championship was amazing.
“I think the wrong conception is to think that the world championship went on one lap. It was 22 Grands Prix, and if you look at the full season, you know Max had the puncture in Baku, Valtteri Bottas crashed into Verstappen in Hungary, there was the Silverstone race [clash between Hamilton and Verstappen]. I think at the end, if we look at how many points were lost by Verstappen, not necessarily by his fault, he was the one that deserved more the championship.
“On the Abu Dhabi race, Lewis deserved more the championship. He got unlucky over the last lap. But as a race fan, I loved that last lap, and it was super exciting to watch.”
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Grosjean also defended beleaguered race director Michael Masi, who made the call to not only wave the green flag with one lap remaining, but also let the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves.
“There's a few ways of seeing it,” said Grosjean, who departed F1 for IndyCar at the end of 2020. “It would have been very strange to not unlap those cars and have Lewis first and then Max four cars behind over one lap for the World Championship.
“On the other hand, for Lewis it was definitely not a great call, but as a TV fan, as a spectator, for the sport, I think Michael Masi make the right decision. I don't think the championship would have been nice to finish under the safety car. It would not have been nice to finish with the guys being separated on track being first and second separated by a few cars.
“I was more Lewis side than Max, so I was kind of, ‘Oh, Lewis lost it over the last part of the season; Max did the same, made an incredible job. But I thought it was so cool to get those two guys going together.”
Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, vowed to let Grosjean test a Mercedes F1 car, and through travel restrictions and tight schedules for both team and driver, this has yet to take place. However, Grosjean said it was still feasible.
He said: “I sent a message to Toto after Abu Dhabi… Well, I left a couple of weeks, a few weeks going by, and then I sent a message to Toto, and he did reply. He started ‘Thank you,’ and then the last sentence was, ‘We need to get you in that car this year.’
“Yes, it's still on the cards. There were a few things last year that didn't make it easy. This year I cannot go at the French Grand Prix because we're racing in Iowa the same weekend. But definitely Mercedes is keen to do it, I am keen to do it, even though my neck will be dying because I've lost part of the muscle there. You can ask Pato [O’Ward] what it was like [in an F1 car].
“But yes, we still want to do it, and if it happens, great. But… the main focus is now trying to win races with Andretti.”
