Lotus engineer Ricardo Penteado shows confidence in Romain Grosjean - Formula 1 news
Lotus engineer Ricardo Penteado believes that Romain Grosjean can now forget about his troubles in the 2012 Formula 1 season and concentrate on the current championship.
The Brazilian engineer, who is employed to work on Kimi Raikkonen’s car, stated, “I think he can forget about 2012 now. His overtaking was all perfect; he didn’t
put anyone out. It was clean and really showed who Grosjean is — especially his speed.”
Penteado added, “He showed last year that he is a very fast driver, and I would say he can use the systems of the car even better than Kimi. His challenge is to
find the right setup, and having a little more confidence in himself.”
Last year, the French driver impressed one and all with his speed during the qualifiers, but failed to convert that form into the race day. He was described as
a ‘first lap nut case’ by Red Bull driver Mark Webber because of taking out other drivers on the opening lap on numerous occasions.
On the other hand Raikkonen was able to score points with consistency and proved that he was one of the best in the business. He looked a bit rusty in the opening
rounds of the 2012 season, but got better with the passage of time. Despite that, he was not involved in any major incidents and completed all races he took part in.
However, Grosjean proved to be a major disappointment for the team and he was banned for one race because of his rash driving in the Belgian GP. He took out two
title contenders Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, which proved to be vital at the end of the season.
Due to a series of such events, Lotus were under pressure to consider a replacement for Grosjean for the 2013 season. The team thought hard, but decided to stick
with the same driver line up in the end.
This was a big sigh of relief for the 27-year-old driver, who looked a bit nervous in the first few races of the current season. However, he seems to have settled
down now and has scored a podium in Bahrain, which means that he has found his rhythm back and will be a threat to his rivals in the upcoming rounds.
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