Grosjean bemused by ‘bloody undriveable’ Haas car

Romain Grosjean says he’s looking forward to saying goodbye to his 2019 Haas Formula 1 car given the frustrating season he’s endured which struck again during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix leading him to describe the VF-19 as undriveable.

The French driver dropped out in Q1 of qualifying in 16^th place, and will start the Abu Dhabi race in 15^th due to Valtteri Bottas’s grid penalty, having been left bemused by his Haas car performance drop between practice and qualifying.

Grosjean ended FP3 in 11^th place despite having to change the specification of his car following his clash with Bottas during FP2. Having been optimistic of finding more pace in qualifying, Grosjean was shocked with the handling of his Haas in qualifying.

“I think the biggest problem is that we had three sessions where the car behaved very well, yesterday I was super happy with the car,” Grosjean said. “Obviously yesterday we had to change the car following the crash with Bottas so this morning we got our heads down and worked hard.

“We had a decent car in P11 in FP3 and we knew we had more in our hands coming into qualifying but then the bloody thing is undriveable.

“It is nobodies’ fault, the engineers did their best and I have driven the same way but we went into Turn 1 and had the same thing as Kevin, I went sideways, and lost three-tenths of a second already. So, when it is that tight it is never going to be good.”

With the final qualifying of 2019 over, Grosjean admits he’s pleased to be close to the end of the season so Haas can target a fresh start with its 2020 F1 car.

“I can be kind of happy, to be honest I have tried to be positive all year long but let’s say we are looking forward to getting rid of that one and it won’t be going in a museum,” he said.

Before Grosjean’s final run in Q1 he came close to a collision with Daniil Kvyat when the Russian driver was released from his garage directly into the path of the Haas driver.

The incident has been placed under investigation by the FIA Stewards for an unsafe release of Kvyat, with Toro Rosso handed a €5000 fine, but the French driver played it down having avoided contact.

“It was alright I overtook him on track so I got the position back,” he clarified. “Obviously it wasn’t nice from Toro Rosso but it happens sometimes.”

Grosjean had initially been set to use a floor specification from pre-season testing with his Haas this weekend but following the crash with Bottas the parts were too badly damaged meaning the French driver has reverted to a current specification VF-19.