Q&A with Romain Grosjean

Japan was a difficult weekend for many reasons…

Yes and we all wish Jules the very best recovery. We know he is in the best hands so all we can do now is hope and pray. It was such difficult conditions and it looked like a freak occurrence.

How was your performance on track?

It was certainly a race where you had to really concentrate and focus for every moment. It was right that we should start behind the safety car, but it was right that the race was red flagged once it became clear the conditions were too difficult. Once the rain stopped, the restart was good. We quickly moved from full wets to intermediate tyres and that gives a good gauge of how wet it was. As a team we didn’t always make the correct decision with strategy, but it’s hard to say if anyone does in changeable conditions like that.

Tell us what you know about Sochi.

I’ve been driving the Sochi circuit on the simulator. It didn’t look very sexy from the outside but it actually seems to be really good fun. There’s a great mix of corners and some good high speed areas too. The setting looks to be pretty impressive with a new facility and one where there are mountains not far away as well as being right next to the Black Sea.

For me, it’s also quite special to race at the site of and Olympic Games. I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and especially the Winter Olympics, because my grandfather competed in skiing events at the 1948 and 1952 events. Hopefully that will bring me some luck!

It’s good to go to Russia as well. It’s such a big country. When you fly to Japan most of the time you seem to be just flying over Russia! I’ve been to Sochi once before in 2009 for a team event and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.

If you were not a Formula One driver and had to pick an Olympic discipline, which would you most like to do?

I would probably go for skiing or bobsleigh. Like Formula 1, both events are about high speed and picking a racing line. It’s all part of my DNA. I actually started my career in skiing before I went into racing so that would probably be the discipline I would choose.

How about driving an F1 car on studded tyres in the snow?

I would love to give it a go! It has been done before, by Lotus F1 Team in Dubai in 2009, but that was indoors so let’s try a full outdoor ski slope! I’ve done a few car races on ice so I’d be happy to try an F1 car in the snow.

How quickly do you learn a new circuit?

Even without a simulator you get a basic idea of the track pretty quickly. What the simulator does is let you speed up this process and make initial decisions about car set-up and so on. What the simulator can’t do for a new circuit is give a precise idea of the grip levels you will find as it’s a surface we’ve never raced on before. With any new surface, we’d expect the grip levels to change over the course of the weekend, so that will be part of the challenge.

Does a new circuit afford you any greater opportunities?

We all face the same challenge, but there is an element of how good the driver and team are at quickly getting a handle on the track. Hopefully Sochi is a circuit which suits our car. We won’t know the answer to that till we get there!