Grosjean: I could have won races and maybe the championship

The Frenchman left Formula 1 at the end of the 2020 season, 11 years after he made his debut with Renault in 2009, having been on the podium 10 times but never on the top step.

During his career he had a few opportunities to take that elusive victory, most notably in 2013, but looking back on his time in F1 Grosjean said that he does not have too many regrets.

“Actually, I’m not that frustrated about it,” he told The Race. “Every time I had the chance, I took it. An alternator has stopped me [in Valencia in 2012], the safety car in Germany and the strategy in 2013.

“If there’s one regret, it’s that Lotus went badly south in 2014. I didn’t get a proper opportunity in a top team at that time."

Nine of his 10 podiums came during the 2012 and 2013 seasons while driving for a competitive Lotus team, but things went downhill quickly for the team after the move to the V6 turbo-hybrid power units in 2014.

The 34-year-old moved to Haas in 2016 and helped them move up the grid during their first three seasons, but the last two years have been difficult and the American outfit decided against renewing his deal for 2021.

“I haven’t done everything perfectly, but if I had a good car, I would have won races and maybe the championship,” he added. “I still think I’m one of the fastest out there, but it’s difficult to show anything with the car we had.

"Even when you do a good race, you’re P12, 13, 14 and people won’t say you’ve done a good race because they can’t see it.”

Despite being involved in a life-threatening crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which turned out to be his last race in the sport, Grosjean expects to be back racing next season.

“I think first things first, recovering my hands with full mobility and being healthy,” he said this week. “I’m working psychologically, obviously that was a big shock.

"And I would lie if I said the image doesn’t come back sometimes. But I think Romain Grosjean will be racing."