Former Renault and Lotus team boss Eric Boullier says that Romain Grosjean should have won multiple Grands Prix during his time in the sport.
Grosjean made his Formula 1 debut with Renault in 2009, but was then sent back to race with the DAMS team in GP2 and Auto GP. After clinching both titles he got a second chance in F1 alongside Kimi Raikkonen at the newly-branded Lotus in 2012.
He later moved to Haas in 2016, but has now been told his services will no longer be required for 2021 – meaning it’s likely he will end his F1 career without a single race win to his credit.
The closest he came was runner-up on two occasions, first in Canada in 2012 and then a year later in the US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
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“He was good enough and he would have [been a race winner] actually,” said Boullier, who was subsequently McLaren racing director and is currently managing director of the French Grand Prix organisation.
“He did enough podiums to show he has the potential to win,” he told the latest edition of the official Formula 1 Beyond The Grid podcast. “I think Romain has the capacity to win races. He won championships in every category he raced in before, so he has all this.
“But F1 is a little bit more complicated, because you need to handle [pressure] and to gather people around you. Plus being in the right team, with the right engine, at the right time.
Boullier said that Lotus had been such a team at the time, as proved by the success of Raikkonen as his team mate, as well as handing Grosjean all ten of his career podium finishes.
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