Grosjean: 2012 tougher than current F1 slump

Romain Grosjean is adamant he has faced tougher periods in his Formula 1 career than his current barren run, including a crash-strewn 2012 season. 

The Haas driver is enduring a run of 13 races without recording a single point, stretching back to last year's Japanese Grand Prix. The streak has lasted the entire 2018 campaign so far, despite the American squad boasting one of the strongest packages out of the midfield teams. 

Although he is one of just two drivers on the grid yet to claim a top 10 finish this season, Grosjean insists he went through a tougher time in 2012 as he faced a barrage of criticism from fellow drivers after being involved in a number of accidents, most notably causing a huge first-lap pile-up at in Belgium that resulted in a one-race ban.

“You don’t want to focus on it but it’s been a long stretch,” Grosjean explained. “Looking at the performance of the car we could have been doing it a lot of times but its painful. But it will come.

“To be fair it was harder in 2012. I was being criticised by other drivers badly, drivers that I respect, and I was creating big safety problems.

"It's not easy right now and obviously we want more for the team but if you look at all the races, some I could have done much better but some it's just circumstances.”

Grosjean said his disappointing start to the season will not affect his approach or driving style and the Frenchman is remaining confident he will be able to unlock the potential of Haas’ 2018 challenger to turnaround his fortunes. 

“I will drive as I have always been driving,” he insisted. “The car is fast, it has been fast for a long time. If you take apart Monaco where we weren’t very quick and everywhere else we have been fast. 

“I see no reason why we can’t be quick here and at Silverstone and then we have updates coming I believe for Germany and the car is a really good baseline, so if we can get the tyres to work every time and build from what we’ve got, we should be able to get some good points before the end of the season.”