Romain Grosjean believes Formula 1 can’t be called a sport because of the lack of parity in the cars.
The Frenchman has been at both ends of the grid during his nine seasons in F1, whether it be scoring 10 podiums during his days at Lotus or racing near the back last season at Haas.
Like all those in the midfield teams, however, Grosjean knows every race weekend the best finish he can hope for without retirements at the top teams is seventh, and while efforts are being made to address that in 2021, right now he feels that lack of equality removes the sporting element.
“I think we call Formula 1 a sport. Is it a sport? I am not so sure. It’s a show. A sport is supposed to be fair and Formula 1 is not fair,” he claimed last week in Barcelona.
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“It’s very physical to drive a Formula 1 car, I’ve done 160 laps and I’ll do more and I will probably be in pieces for a few days.
“It’s hard, it’s demanding, a lot of effort going from everyone, but it’s like asking Roger Federer to go to [the French Open at] Roland Garros with a ping pong racket – he won’t stand a chance.
“And would you call tennis a sport if they weren’t coming always the same rackets, or if the court was wider one side than it would be on the other? You judge it.”
Perhaps the best counter-argument to Grosjean is to look at football, where only a certain number of teams can realistically fight for the Premier League each season, and he does admit one element of F1 is attracting yourself to the right team.
“It could happen, I will do my best to get some opportunity in the future,” he said on whether he could win a race in F1.
“I mean, I was already lucky to be 10 times on the podium, I should have won I believe two Grands Prix, things didn’t come my way.
“But look at Daniel Ricciardo, if you only take his time at Renault he hasn’t even scored a podium but he’s been winning races, is a great driver, and he’s been on the podium, it all depends what you’ve got between your hands.”