Romain Grosjean Blames Mark Webber For His Reputation In F1

Grosjean was of the view that it was a racing incident and Webber shouldn't have gone to the media.

By Sahil Gupta

1 mins read

Published on January 8, 2021

Highlights

Grosjean blames Webber's comments for his poor reputation
Webber and Grosjean famously clashed at 2012 Japanese GP
After the race, Webber dubbed Grosjean a "nut case"

Romain Grosjean was often the butt of most F1 jokes before his scary accident at the Bahrain GP in Sakhir abruptly brought his F1 career to end two races before schedule. Reflecting on his career in F1, when initially he was touted as a future world champion, Grosjean felt that his crash with Mark Webber caused his reputation to be tarnished forever. "A sticker was put on my head from the first year by Mark Webber that I was a 'first-lap nutcase'," said the Swiss-French racer. Romain Grosjean's crash in Bahrain meant that he didn't finish the last two races of the 2020 season "I don't understand it," he reflects. "I think it was frustration. He had a four-time world champion car and he won a few races, so I think he was quite frustrated by the whole situation and just decided, on that day, yes he can come at me, and have a word with me and say he's not happy," he added. Grosjean was of the view that it was a racing incident and Webber shouldn't have gone to the media and say all those things as it did lasting damage to his reputation as a race driver. "If he approached me, I would have said 'yes, I made a mistake - punch me'. But going to the media and outside and so on and openly criticising, I think that was a bit too much. For that, obviously, my respect is not as high as for some others," concluded Grosjean.