Grosjean appeared shellshocked as he spoke, but was honest in admitting to his
faults as he said: “I accept my mistake.”
Also fined 50,000 euros (£40,000), Grosjean added: “I misjudged the
gap with Lewis. I thought I was in front of him.”
“It was a small mistake, but a big incident. I’m very sorry, and I’m just
glad nobody is hurt. That’s the main thing.”
“Obviously it’s a very hard decision to hear, and when you love racing
it’s hard.”
Accepting he may need to change his ways, Grosjean added: “If there is
more than one (mistake) then that is too many.
“It is too much. I know that. Some are not my fault, but I will analyse
and I will try to not repeat it in the seven last races. For sure I don’t
want to do any more (crashes), so I will work as much as I can to try and
avoid those.”
“It’s just most of the time misjudgement of the space I have in front or
the space I have on the side. It’s true we don’t see much in the mirrors and
stuff like that and it goes very quick at the start.”
“I was 100 per cent sure I was in front of Lewis, but I was not so I need
to rethink about my view of the car. I am most angry at myself to have
misjudged the gap with Lewis’ car.”
Team principal Eric Boullier, who described the penalty as “severe”,
believes the one-race ban will give Grosjean time to reflect on the error of
his ways.
“Being in the wrong place is not good, and that means we have to keep
working and talking – more talking I think – as to the reason why he is in
the wrong place,” said Boullier.
“Part of the problem is he wants to do well, he is somebody who is a
perfectionist. He needs to understand he will deliver more if he doesn’t put
too much pressure on himself at the start of the race.”
“This is a severe penalty, but it’s part of his learning curve. Obviously
the penalty is done to make people understand what they did. So the penalty
can help him learn to do better in the future and I am happy about that.”