Grosjean handicapped by a sensor problem
Romain Grosjean did not show his best form today in Barcelona, but this is largely due to a minor problem with his Lotus. The Frenchman remains confident despite the tire challenges that seem to be looming.
Far down the timesheet of the second free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean explained this lack of performance during a press briefing held in the Lotus motorhome in the Barcelona paddock.
The Frenchman admitted that he had a sensor problem on his E21 which forced him to abort his fast lap on mediums: « Today, it’s certain that the time is not good, during the run on medium tires, we had an issue, we have to return at the end of the lap. It’s a sensor that failed on the car so we couldn’t finish the lap, which would have put us around Kimi’s times, which is not bad. »
It was an overall complicated practice session for Grosjean: « It wasn’t a pleasant session because we were 18th on the timing sheet, didn’t complete a lap with the mediums, and the first two stints on hards didn’t go well because of a minor issue, so it wasn’t a session … we had set up two test programs during this session and we couldn’t carry them out. »
So everything is not perfect, but Grosjean remains optimistic for tomorrow because he knows roughly which direction to go to improve his car: The long runs are not easy because we have significant front tire degradation. Now, we’re going to try to work around that to make sure the car is good tomorrow. We have ideas on what to do and how to do it, and from there, we’ll try to make small adjustments for tomorrow and do our best for the race.
As in the last Grand Prix, tire management will be a key element during qualifying and the race, but once again, the French driver does not appear too worried: « It’s quite complicated [to manage the tires] since the degradation is much higher than what we expected numerically. Mercedes managed to do 25 laps with a single set, but it’s 6 or 7 seconds off the times, so it’s like driving a grandma’s car, but we have to deal with it and do better than the others, especially. »
When asked about how to preserve his tires, Grosjean admitted that he did not yet have a miracle solution on this point and that his learning was still ongoing: « You don’t force the conditions, when you’re driving 7 seconds off the times, it’s much less difficult. Honestly, I can’t exactly tell you what needs to be done. I’m trying to understand, trying to improve, Kimi is a bit better than me at this but it’s not clear what needs to be done. »
From our special correspondent in Barcelona
