In
his first lap of testing earlier this week Romain Grosjean’s car went spinning
into the gravel in Barcelona, and the cynics of the F1 world let out a
chuckle. Could they expect anything less
from the man branded the “First-lap nutcase” by Mark Webber last season? But maybe that mentality will change in the
media this season partially because of Grosjean’s admittance of using a psychologist
last season.
Speaking
to reporters at the test, the Frenchman revealed that he started seeing a
sports psychologist last September in the midst of an F1 season marred by a
string of incidents that eventually led to a one-race ban.
“It's not a secret that I started work with
a psychologist in September last year and it went very well during the winter,”
Grosjean said. “I had a lot of
discussion with Genii [the financial and investment firm that sponsors the
Lotus Team] to try to help them understand and take the right decision. And
when they called me to say, 'Okay we go again for one more year' I was more
than happy.”
Grosjean’s
openness about seeking help is a welcome change to professional sports in
general, although the impact of his reveal may not change the face of
racing. Instead it’s a reminder of the
human side of the sport that so many gloss over.
In
F1 especially there is a mentality of placing blame quickly and
accurately. If an incident occurs,
people want to know who the stewards will punish and how. If cars careen off the track, whose fault is
it? Have they done it before? If so, then punish them more!
That’s
not to say this mentality is flawed, though.
In a sport where lives are frequently put in danger through dangerous or
careless moves, drivers must be made to stay in line and race in a safe
way. But in Grosjean’s case, stewards’
decisions were not the tipping point, whether he admits this or not.
* * *
It
was relatively cool for Bahrain standards, but the steamy race at the Sakhir
circuit in late April of last year looked to be a defining one for Romain
Grosjean. Starting P7, the Frenchman
made a brilliant start and began a slow and steady march through the field.
By
the fourth lap he had disposed of Mark Webber in the champion Red Bull
RB8. Three laps later he was by Lewis
Hamilton. He needed to keep this up.
Using
tyre strategy to his advantage, Grosjean ran P2 in the late stages of the race
before his teammate, on better tyres, got by him. Still, he stayed with the frontrunners in the
closing laps and secured the first podium of his short career.
He
was ecstatic, becoming the first Frenchman to stand on an F1 podium in 14
years, and he beamed with the promise of a long season ahead after such incredible
early returns. He followed that up with
a fourth place finish, then a P2, sprinkling a “Fastest Lap” honor in there as
well. Another second place finish and
podium ensued. Good things were in store
for Romain Grosjean.
* * *
“We
had good results (last season),” Grosjean said at the Lotus car launch a while
back. “Quicker than I was expecting, but
maybe I wanted a little too much.”
If
there’s anything of which F1 drivers could be accused, it’s certainly not lack
of want. Any driver lacking passion to
win would not have made it to Formula 1, and Grosjean is no exception
(especially since this is his second go-around in the sport after a disastrous
campaign alongside Fernando Alonso at Renault).
So yes, maybe Grosjean was a little overambitious in some of his moves
and decisions, but I think his issue is a deeper one.
The
picture that the media painted of Grosjean was not a pretty one. Far from being hateful, everyone began to
associate him with crashes. Internet
memes celebrated his failures. Drivers
laughed when being asked about starting a race near him. If he and Maldonado were in the same sector,
look out!
Whether
Romain has acknowledged these characterizations of him, I have no idea. One can be sure that it weighed on him every
time he found himself in a tricky situation.
Every decision must now be reconsidered.
‘If I mess this up, will I be
giving everyone more fodder? I have to
stay clean.’
* * *
On
the second day of September, the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix began at the might
Spa-Francorchamps. Romain Grosjean
started P9 on the run to La Source hairpin, but few remember his starting
position. Even fewer remember the clutch
slip by Pastor Maldonado that caused the field to splay, or the launch that
Grosjean got to position himself on the inside line at the first corner.
In
the blink of an eye, it happened.
Hairpins like La Source lend themselves to crashes on race starts, but
this one was different. Grosjean found
Hamilton to his inside, and in a split second the two had touched wheels. Everyone remembers the crash that ensued,
seeing Grosjean punt Perez before becoming airborne. Everyone remembers the scary onboard image
from the cockpit of Alonso’s Ferrari, and everyone remembers the runoff
littered with carbon fiber and steaming cars.
Grosjean
would earn a one race ban for his involvement in the incident, and a short time
later he sought the help of a sports psychologist. His approach to racing and his handling of
the pressure that came with his incidents needed rethinking. Romain Grosjean knew that his career could be
significantly shortened, but not because of his driving, but because of the
space between his ears.
* * *
Regardless
of how accurate the depictions of Grosjean’s accident-causing nature have been,
his courage to seek help both in the interest of his career and for the safety
of those around him is unprecedented in modern Grand Prix racing. It is a situation in stark contrast with the
cutthroat nature of F1 where a driver’s underachieving inevitably means his
career will be over as soon as his contract allows.
For
Romain to take a step back and try to better his career underlies the notion
that drivers are human and are incredibly susceptible to issues of
self-confidence and doubt.
As
media and fans, we are quick to praise the drivers that find themselves in such
beautiful flow in a racecar---a phenomenon that is centered in the mind. But we are equally as quick to pin everything
on the driver when he has a string of bad finishes, accidents or
incidents. We remove the mental aspect
of the sport in these situations and just assume that there was a dumb decision,
a momentary lapse of judgment. Put two
or three of those incidents near each other on the calendar and people label
the driver as a “problem.”
This
is the spiral that Grosjean entered. The
ban forced him to rethink his role in the team and his approach to the
races. Even so there were still
incidents in the next Grands Prix: He
ran into Webber in the very next race at Suzuka, he was part of a first lap
incident in Abu Dhabi, and he hit the HRT of Pedro de la Rosa in Brazil. The end-of-season break was extremely
welcomed by Romain if not only for the fact of getting the bad taste out of his
mouth. He would have work to do in the
offseason, though.
* * *
Tom
Kristensen is a racing legend. His eight
victories in Le Mans and his stellar track record in endurance racing and DTM
will attest to this. How could a
maligned, laughing stock of a racer compare to this, much less beat him
head-to-head on an international stage?
This
was the situation facing Romain Grosjean in Bangkok, Thailand last
December. After a dream finish of second
in the Nations Cup of the Race of Champions, Grosjean had improbably worked his
way through the Champion of Champions bracket and found himself in the final
against Kristensen---a man who has been there before.
The
story would be too fantastic to write if the Frenchman won, but what a better
way to usher in the new season than by beating one of the best?
Two
races and two victories later, though, and Romain Grosjean was the 2012
Champion of Champions. He had won the
honor that has evaded Kristensen to this day, and the media began to see a
changed driver. He was smiling more; he
was excited for the future again. He was
thrilled to hoist the trophy that few believed he would ever win.
One
day later he received news that he would be driving for the Lotus F1 Team in
2013.
* * *
“He’s
a different guy now,” Lotus chairman Gerard Lopez said. “He knows what he has to do. He doesn’t have that pressure, stress. … We essentially have told him he's got a
long-term future with us so now he can literally take it race by race,
practice by practice."
And it’s that freedom from pressure that should
propel Grosjean to bigger and better things.
Having been a champion in every series in which he’s run, the Frenchman
is well aware of what it will take to find success in Formula 1. He also knows that the key to that success
lies not in the engineering of a carbon fiber and titanium, four-wheeled
rocket. It lies within his mind.
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