Grosjean: I’m yet to show my potential

Romain Grosjean believes he has barely shown a hint of what he can do in the 2013 Formula 1 season so far.

After a turbulent 2012 campaign blighted by collisions, penalties and criticism, Grosjean worked hard over the winter to improve his mental approach and gain more consistency.

His season got off to a bad start as he finished only 10th, complaining of a car issue, in Melbourne while Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen won.

At Sepang, Grosjean beat his ex-champion team-mate to sixth, but he feels he can do far better.

“It’s been a little frustrating as I don’t think I’ve shown my full potential yet,” he said.

“The first two races were quite difficult for me and I would really like a weekend where I can show what myself and the team can do this season.

“We’ve got great potential, I just need to unlock it. Hopefully we’ll find the key in China.”

FINDING THE SWEET SPOT

Grosjean said difficulty finding the car’s sweet spot was masking his form.

“It’s been frustrating for me as sometimes the car gives me what I want and sometimes it doesn’t, even if the conditions and set-up are very similar,” he said.

“I’ve been working closely with my engineers and we made good progress over the last race weekend.

“The car and the latest tyres seem to be very sensitive to having the balance exactly right so that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Lotus technical chief James Allison said set-up changes made a big difference to Grosjean’s performance during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

“Romain started off the weekend with a set-up that was far too oversteer biased, but through gradually moving towards greater levels of understeer he became significantly more comfortable in the car, subsequently putting in a very good race performance,” Allison said.

“These tyres really do reward a well-balanced car, but the format of a race weekend places sufficient time constraints to make finding that sweet spot a challenge.

“In Melbourne we didn’t quite manage to find the zone with Romain, but by the end of the week in Malaysia we had it much more to his liking and he subsequently rewarded us with a sterling drive.”

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/grosjean-im-yet-to-show-my-potential

Cecil Green Keith Greene Masten Gregory Cliff Griffith Georges Grignard