Oilpressure

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Romain Grosjean has been confirmed at Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) for the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. This is a win for JHR and IndyCar. JHR gets an experienced driver and IndyCar gets to keep a driver with a world-wide reputation. Whether or not this is a win for Grosjean, remains to be seen.

This is a first for JHR. For races that weren’t the Indianapolis 500, they have run drivers who had never been in an IndyCar cockpit before turning competitive laps in a Juncos-owned car. In 2018 alone, they employed non-household names like René Binder and Alfonso Celis, Jr. They did run the reigning Indy lights champion, Kyle Kaiser, for a handful of races. Kaiser would ultimately provide what was then known as Juncos Racing with their biggest moment, when they bumped McLaren and Fernando Alonso out of the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Oddly enough, Kaiser would never drive an Indy car for Juncos ever again.

After going dormant after their Alonso moment, the team re-emerged as Juncos Hollinger Racing near the end of the 2021 season, with another driver few had heard of – Callum Ilott. For 2023, anonymous driver Agustin Canapino ran a second car for the small team.

On Wednesday, Marshall Pruett of Racer.com posted a very interesting article that traces the timeline of how things turned sour between Ilott and JHR throughout the 2023 season. Death threats from over-zealous Argentinean fans of Canapino that were mostly ignored by JHR and an undriveable car for the Indianapolis 500 were gone into in much more detail than I knew about. Another interesting aspect of the article, described how Ricardo Juncos runs his team in a dictatorial manner where crew and drivers are given no voice. As Pruett pointed out, Roger Penske has run his team for decades in this manner, but he has nineteen Indianapolis 500 victories and countless IndyCar championships on the wall. Ricardo Juncos? His team is still seeking their first podium.

If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend reading the Pruett article. It doesn’t paint Juncos in the greatest light, but it is very informative.

How will JHR deal with a head-strong and experienced driver, when they are used to dealing with young drivers with little of no experience. Not only does Grosjean now have three years of IndyCar experience, he brings a decade of F1 experience to the table. If Callum Ilott complaining about an undriveable car at Indianapolis was considered insubordination, how will Grosjean’s critique of the team play out?

I know Romain Grosjean rubs many people the wrong way, but personally I like him. He was more likeable when he drove for Dale Coyne that he was when he drove for Michael Andretti, but I still liked him then.

I’ve told this story a couple of times here, but fans base likes and dislikes of a driver on the strangest things. When Grosjean was driving for Coyne in 2021, Susan and I had a chance meeting with him at Road America. It was Saturday, between practice and qualifying. Susan and I were eating lunch at Honda Hospitality, along with many other people. Most tables were full, but ours was just the two of us. Grosjean politely asked if we minded if he joined us. He sat down and chatted all through lunch; about his family, his impressions of the US, etc. Oh yes, we also talked about racing – although I purposely avoided asking about the Bahrain crash which was just eight months earlier.

Grosjean also asked about us; where we were from, what we did. I gave him one of my Oilpressure.com business cards, which I’m sure he will cherish forever. He was one of the nicest, most humble and polite people I have ever met – much less a driver or celebrity. You would have never known this man sitting with us had scores of fans around the globe. Instead, he came across as an accountant who had just pushed away from his desk to grab some lunch. One chance meeting at lunch is a stupid reason to like someone, but we’ve been Grosjean fans ever since.

But being a nice guy is not why I’m glad he is staying in the series. Even though he was a pleasant person to have lunch with, Grosjean has a mean streak in him, and I say that as a good thing. With the exception of Will Power, Graham Rahal and a couple of others, most of the drivers on the IndyCar grid lack a lot of personality. Not to stereotype (but I guess I am), Scandinavian drivers are a little on the dull side. They all seem to be extremely nice, but none of them have a personality that makes them memorable. Christian Lundgaard is an excellent driver, but has not uttered one word that makes anyone take notice.

Now I’m all in favor of a driver speaking their mind, so long as it’s authentic. Sometimes athletes do their best to act outrageous in order to enhance their brand. I don’t like that, but I appreciate someone like Graham Rahal giving the unvarnished truth whenever he is asked a question. His opinion sounds a lot more genuine than those who speak in a monotone, never answer a question, but can rattle off their list of sponsors at the drop of a hat.

Like him or hate him, Grosjean doesn’t care. I watched the introductory Zoom yesterday. Some one asked him if it bothered him if he had turned off some fans over the past three years. He quickly said “No. If you don’t like me, it’s fine by me”. While that may be off-putting to some, I find it refreshing. While he is good to most fans and accommodating, I truly don’t think he cares what people think about him. To me, that’s a lot more authentic than a driver that says and does all the right things in front of a camera, then turns into a different person when they think they are no longer being watched. That description makes a few drivers come to mind, but I’ll refrain from naming names.

The late Robin Miller said for years that IndyCar needs a villain. I’ve said for the last couple of years that Romain Grosjean could be it.

Getting back to yesterday’s confirmation that Grosjean is joining Juncos Hollinger Racing, this could get very interesting. JHR doesn’t have the engineering staff that Coyne or Andretti had. His longtime engineer, Olivier Boisson, is staying at Andretti, so he will have a new engineer for the first time since he joined IndyCar. If things don’t go well, Grosjean is likely to be vocal, which many not set well with the heavy-handed Ricardo Juncos. Get your popcorn! This could be fun to watch.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on November 3, 2023 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.