Grosjean : My life as number 3

L’Equipe (a big French newspaper) asked Romain Grosjean the Lotus Renault GP team’s third driver, to describe his weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix…

Romain: It’s always the same two questions:
”So you’re testing for the team?”
“No. Unfortunately there’s no more testing in F1.”
“So what are you doing if you’re not driving?”
The knockers would say ‘not much,’ but my weekends are very busy.

As the third Lotus Renault GP driver, I go to all the winter tests and all the Grands Prix to replace one of the team drivers should they not be able to race.

Generally, I arrive on Wednesday evening, a bit earlier if the time difference is very big. My first job is a lap of the circuit on Thursday morning around 11 o’ clock. I do it on foot with the drivers, the team manager and the nine engineers who look after the two cars. The aim is to pinpoint the changes on the track, and help the drivers find their marks. Once this is over, I spend quite a lot of time talking to the mechanics to learn a bit more about how an F1 car works from a mechanical point of view.

Friday is usually pretty calm. I have a briefing in the morning an hour before the start of practice. Then I’m on the pit wall with the engineers. But here in Abu Dhabi, it was a great day for me! I was doing the first of my two sessions* scheduled by the team. So I sat in on the briefing in the place of the team driver. I listened with great attention to what would be my programme and what procedures I’d have to follow. An hour-and-a-half of sheer bliss!

Then I went back to my room and Bruno Senna’s physiotherapist gave me a bit of a massage, as I was taking Bruno’s seat. The pre-session countdown is always a key moment for me. I like to shoot the breeze surrounded by my friends to stay relaxed.

I went to the garage twenty minutes before the start of the session. These moments are always very special and have a touch of magic about them. I put on my helmet, jumped into the no. 9 Lotus Renault GP, dropped the clutch, slotted into first gear and away I went for an hour-and-a-half of sheer bliss! After the session I had a debrief with the engineers. Not just with one but with all those who were there on Thursday morning’s lap of the track. Each one needed precise information.

Once the adrenaline level had dropped and I’d given my comments on the car, I put back on my Lotus Renault GP t-shirt and went back into my role as third driver for the rest of practice. Back on the pit wall for the second session. There I listened to all the comments between the engineers and drivers; I always learn a lot from them. But Friday wasn’t over when the cars came back to their garages. There was the day’s debrief and then the drivers’ briefing.

It can be quite good fun and certain drivers use it to settle scores with one another! But above all it gives us the opportunity to talk about what we can do to improve our sport, the safety and the on-track action. Saturday, same thing with a succession of technical briefings. But I also had to be present in the garage at certain times to come and talk to our partners and answer their questions.

Then came Sunday, race day. In the morning we had a final meeting on strategy and a last walk to the front of the garage with the sponsors and then I was back on the pit wall – again, to follow the grand prix. I was dreaming of getting into an F1 car at that moment, and every time a car passed by in the pit lane I wanted to jump down and take the driver’s place! I wouldn’t say it was frustrating but I was as impatient as a child with a toy he can’t get his hands on. Even if I don’t believe in Father Christmas any more, I keep on wishing and I hope that the present I want the most this year will be the snow to my Christmas tree!

Romain Grosjean

PS: I will also drive on the Friday of the Brazilian Grand Prix on 25th November in Sao Paulo…

Source : LRGP