planetf1.com

"Romain Grosjean will stay on at Lotus for the 2013 Formula 1 season after being confirmed by the team on Monday."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104858

Nice one.

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Jenson Button & Williams F1 Team supporter!

Great!

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I have a soft spot for Bruno, so I'm a little disappointed that there's one less potential seat available, but to be honest I think Romain Bigtrousers probably deserves it more.

There was a quote from someone like Frank Williams or someone to the effect of how it's far easier for someone to learn race craft than it is to learn how to be fast; that probably fits this scenario quite well.

Good. He is fast enough to deserve one last chance.

I think it is a good call... They keep TOTAL as a sponsor with him on board, and if he can control the car in traffic better he will be fine.... He showed flashes all year

Why do people think that they need Grosjean for the Total money?

The team has had Total since the Renault days.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

Fair enough, he clearly has something in he way of talent but its a risk and be it on Boullier's head if it backfires.

chilton at marussia, source from e.j

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He may not be the most reliable driver, but he has speed. I'm happy that Lotus kept him for another year. This can, however, be counted as his very last chance in F1 - another year like 2012 and he's definitely not going to stay at Lotus, if even F1.

I do believe that he can rack up some results though, and hopefully get Lotus a better WCC position than this year.

am happy for him as well. good decision by the team

The right choice.

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He was the best choice. Sure there are question marks whether he has managed to iron out the inconsistencies when the season starts in Melbourne but he has the potential to bring way better results than Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Senna and others who were still without a drive.

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Fantastic. Better than Senna, more potential than Kobayashi if he sorts the consistency for speed out and a good bloke. Well done Lotus.

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1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Good choice Lotus. It proves that even after his sour 2012 season, the team still has faith in him to drive well. And I'm sure that's exactly what he'll do.

it was to be expected, i fear for the sport max chilton is not that decent at all and hasn't proved yet in any series he can be a winner, what was it 4th this year in gp2? And quite frankly never really impressed once. I agree with pay drivers to a point and think they are required for the sport but most pay drivers have been champions or runners up in lower series. How far down the standings should we go in future?

Awesome! Love Grosjean, clearly he has alot of raw speed. Hopefully we'll see a few less incidents next year and a few more podiums, go RoGro!

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Drivers I like:
Raikkonen
Grosjean
Perez
Vettel

Teams I like:
Lotus
Merc
RBR
Marussia

Young fella needs another chance. Has speed. Best wishes!

Good one

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Renault!

2012 Planet F1 Prediction Competition Champion

These last couple of days have been good to Romain, congrats!

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

Best of a bad bunch. I just hope he doesn't disappoint. He needs a crash course (excuse the pun) in learning the distance from his eye line to the front, side and rear of his car.

He's show great pace, but always manages to mess his own race up. Lets hope 2013 will be better for him.

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Massive amount of pressure him to succeed now, given so many chances. He has speed in qualifying and on a clear track, but under pressure and around cars he don't seem to do well, so lets see if he improves next season.

Also remember at the start of 2012 season every on here was praising him as the next best thing ,and we all know what happened in 2012, so let's not count our chickens yet as if to say he's ganna be amazing next year over some qualifying speed and clear track speed he's only shown. He has allot to prove and the pressure will be high.

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Driver Instructor & Test Driver

Great news! I really really hope it goes well for him!

And this is why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IN-lIf_62I

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Lewis Hamilton #1!

Alonso, Kimi, Grosjean, Massa, Bianchi, Hulkenberg, Button, Perez.

Mercedes AMG Petronas
Ferrari
Lotus F1
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

I think you are wrong about him. True he has shown awesome speed in qualy but he has also shown excellent racecraft during the races, his overtakes always stick and he is a fair racer, his tyre preservation and strategies were also good, it is only the start were he screws things up.

He is not Kimi good in racecraft but he is solid and hopefully he can build on that next year along with improving his starts. for some reason however i think he will be slower next year. just a hunch.

The obivous choice... Can't say i was impressed with him really, but i don't think Lotus had a better choice. I
Still fans of all drivers will be anxious whenever he starts near them... i will.

In the end Boullier knows Romain better than the other candidates, especially since Boullier is Grosjean's manager. This choice is not surprising. Good for Romain and Lotus. I hope he has a good season, he seems like a decent guy.

Boullier isn't Ro Gos manager. They just work for the same company (Gravity Management I think it's called) which is owned by GENII.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

The biggest shame in all of this is that there's less chance of a good drive for Heikki.

By this point, I can't say its a surprise as it seemed once we got a couple weeks past the end of the season, that it was more and more likely he'd return.

I know its a disappointment for some who were either pulling for someone else, or pulling against Grosjean retaining the seat. But I can see the reasoning behind it. Really with the exception of 1 driver who changed seats, the rest are really just a gamble. Some maybe looking better than others, but still a gamble. His knowledge of the Lotus certainly gives him a head start on anyone else they could have brought in to take the seat.

If he improves his patience and race craft, its a huge win for Lotus... if not they will look for someone else to take the seat, and I don't know that they would have lost out on anyone who wouldn't be available during the 2013 should the choice fail so badly they want to make an in-season change, or after should they want a fresh start with the 2014 car when familiarity with the car won't be as valuable.

boullier runs gravity management so in facto yes as its a management firm kinda his manager/ has a vested interest.

If I am wrong, I apologize, I took it from the BBC article on the signing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20762327

"Grosjean, 26, admitted he had spent time discussing the problems he had suffered in 2012 with team principal Eric Boullier, who is also his manager, before Lotus re-signed him. "

Vested interest maybe but only as far as a the ASDA manager has a vested interest in the shelf stackers kinda way. He has people above him in both roles. Boullier has stated before he has nothing to do with his actual management.

It's not quite as incestuous as the old Flavio days. Although I wonder how much GENII being owner of both want a Gravity driver in the seat.

Although I just found out That KK and Gravity have history too from before Toyota poached him.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

I'm quite surprised they printed that 'cause I'm pretty sure it was on a Beeb interview Bouiller explained the situation.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

well as d ambrosio is also a gravity driver i would say yes they like their own

How does that work ? Is it a conflict of interest. In one role he wants his pay to be higher as team boss he wants it to be lower ?

Doesn't matter genii pay and they get x percentage back to a company they own better than x percent going to other managers

I think Boullier will be OK, he managed to bring Kimi to the team. It'll be a disaster if Grosjean backfires again and Kimi leaves at the end of the year though. I wanted Kobayashi there in large part because I think he deserves a good seat in F1, but Grosjean also deserves this chance. Sometimes it's just like musical chairs and when the music stops somebody is going to be left with nowhere to sit.

Glad his various incidents haven't masked the fact that, when he does stay out of trouble, he has the pace to justify a good seat on the grid. For his sake (and my own, as I'm a fan of the guy) I sincerely hope he can keep his nose clean in 2013. If he's still bouncing off cars at the start of the season, forget keeping his seat in 2014, he might not even make it to the end of 2013, which would be a shame (although completely understandable).

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Currently cheering for: Felipe Massa; Nico Hulkenberg; Romain Grosjean; Felipe Nasr. Oh, and of course, the Toronto Maple Leafs

I'm not really impressed with his race craft (including race pace) but that's maybe because Kimi's been excellent on Sunday. Let's hope he'll improve massively next year.