Grosjean focused on Haas, not Ferrari

Romain Grosjean insists he is fully focused on Haas F1’s debut season in Formula One rather than building links with engine supplier Ferrari.

The French driver was confirmed as the new team’s lead driver in September and has since been joined by Esteban Gutierrez – who was the third driver at Ferrari in 2015.

Haas will be powered by the Italian constructor for their first outing in the sport at the Australian Grand Prix, and some have suggested Grosjean could use the link to increase his chances of driving for Ferrari in the future.

He claimed that is not the case though and is keen to help the new team thrive when the season gets underway in March.

“It’s certainly a move which will allow Ferrari to get a view of my data,” he told Autosport. “It’s getting closer to them than I was.

“But I didn’t go to Haas because I want to go to Ferrari.

“I want to go to Haas because I like the project, I like that it is an American team, I like [team owner] Gene [Haas] and [team boss] Gunther [Steiner] and the way they came to F1.

“If it can be successful and we get to Melbourne and we can go to Q3, imagine how big that would be. I want to be part of that.”

Grosjean knows Haas face an uphill battle to be competitive in the sport, having seen the likes of newcomers Caterham and Manor Marussia struggle in recent years.

“It’s a risk because you always know what you have and you never know what you are going to get.

“But it is the same in life – when you change something, you know what you have and you guess what you’re going to have.

“It’s not a gamble because I have a bit of information which I wanted to have and I feel absolutely 100 per cent convinced.”