Romain Grosjean says F1's unfairness makes it "a show, not a sport"
F1 News
Romain Grosjean says that F1 is not a sport due to the unfairness and the differences in cars on the grid. Grosjean is set to enter his ninth full season in F1 in 2020 and despite ten podiums, he never managed to win a race. Since joining Haas in 2016, his best finish is fourth at the 2018 Austrian GP.
Whilst Grosjean was in a good car during his days at Lotus, he has struggled to fight at the front since his superb end to the 2013 season, where he was arguably the second best driver on the grid behind Sebastian Vettel.
The Frenchman believes that F1 is unfair to its drivers and therefore should be considered a show rather than a sport. He told Motorsport.com: “I think, we call Formula 1 a sport, is it a sport? I am not so sure. It’s a show, but a sport is supposed to be fair and Formula 1 is not fair.
“It’s very physical to drive a Formula 1 car, it’s hard, it’s demanding, it’s a lot of effort going [in] from everyone, but it’s like asking Roger Federer to go with a ping-pong racket to Roland Garros. He won’t have a chance.
“And would you call tennis a sport if they were not coming all with the same rackets, or if the court was wider on one side than it would be on the other side?”
Grosjean is closer to the end of his F1 career than the start, with some considering him lucky to be in F1 at all this year. Without an F1 win so far in his career, Grosjean remains hopeful it could happen one day but is also being realistic. He added: “Could happen. I mean, I was already lucky to be 10 times on the podium. I should’ve won, I believe, two grands prix [Europe 2012 and Germany 2013], and things didn’t come my way.
“Yeah, could well happen that I won’t win a grand prix. I will do my best to get some opportunities in the future, there’s obviously a lot of drivers out of contract at the end of the year, there could be drivers also retiring."