Grosjean: Interlagos suits my driving style

It was another fighting performance through the field for Romain in Austin. Now he looks to end his season on a high at a track he loves, and one he thinks should suit the E20…

Tell us about Interlagos; is it a track you like?

It’s a fantastic track. It’s very, very nice and it suits my driving style so I’m really looking forward to it. The E20 could be very good there too and should suit to the conditions and circuit. Well, let’s hope so!

Is there a specific part of the track you like the most?

Everything! It’s interesting with its ups and downs. If I had to pick favourite parts of Interlagos, I would say the first and last corners; they are very fast and as a driver I really enjoy them! It’s an old style track so very hard to pick out a single element; I’d say everything is pretty good.

Weather is usually quite a talking point in Brazil with the altitude playing a factor; how will you approach the weekend?

To be honest the weather and altitude is not something we can change and therefore we just have to deal with it. We will plan our strategy well and just aim to be in a position to fit the right tyres at the right time. The good news is that Brazil is closer to our normal time zone so jet lag will be less hard to cure when we go back home!

You had a pretty exciting race in the USA last weekend; including overtaking Kimi and Michael Schumacher at the same time!

Yes, and with eight world titles between them it felt pretty good! Kimi had a go at Michael through turn eleven, then had a bad exit whereas I had a good one. Michael pushed Kimi out to the right meaning I could go for the opening on the left. It was not the hardest overtaking manoeuvre of the year, but I was in the right place at the right time and I’m told it looked pretty good on TV. The race itself was good; the car showed strong pace, although there were a couple of frustrations when I got stuck behind a Force India and then spun on lap seven.

A gearbox change put you back five places on the grid; how frustrating was that?

Strangely enough I was not actually that frustrated; we were working well and managed to recover. It is what it is; we just focused on qualifying and trying to get back to the level we were achieving earlier in the season… and it worked.

Do you think things would have been very different if you hadn’t spun?

It was not exactly what we’d want. It was hard after the spin coming back through the pack, but I knew it was possible to do it. We had to set a good pace but also take care of everything on the car; including the tyres to try not to finish on the rims! It worked and I think we made another good improvement in Austin. We should hopefully take our qualifying and race pace to Brazil.

You didn’t look to be driving as someone who is worried about every possible incident…

I’ve learnt that you can over-compensate by trying to avoid any potential incident. We’re all racers on track so that’s what you do. I don’t want the reputation of being an easy touch and I’m certainly not an open door on track; I’ll fight for every position. I’ve left a memo: I won’t leave the door open, and I’m looking to race.