After an impressive Formula 1 season opener in Bahrain, where he passed the likes of Fernando Alonso and became the first Japanese driver to score points on his F1 debut, Yuki Tsunoda says he expected too much from the following races.
Twenty-five years ago Formula 1 was stunned by a Monaco Grand Prix for the ages in which Olivier Panis took his first ever F1 victory. Now, on the latest episode of the Beyond The Grid podcast, Panis recalls that sensational weekend in great detail.
French rugby player and ex-F1 racer Guy Ligier’s eponymous squad always showed potential: from 1992-96, they enjoyed an average championship finish of sixth and even scored a few podiums. In 1996, the team gave it their all to prepare for Monaco but a mis-firing engine had Panis starting down in 14th on the grid. A quarter of a century later, he recalled the Mugen engineers’ emotions in the garage on Saturday.
As Miami joins Austin on the F1 calendar next year and American viewing figures, driven by a new fanbase won over by Netflix and F1’s investment in digital media, consistently hit their highest numbers of all time, the sport’s popularity Stateside is hitting a purple patch.
But the holy grail of engagement appears to remain an American driver. Quite incredibly, America’s second world champion Mario Andretti remains the country’s last race winner. In 1978.
So why aren’t the best of America’s best ending up in Formula 1? And what, if anything, can be done to uncork the bottle and bring America’s finest racing talent back to the sport?
The French Grand Prix may be changing dates, but Romain Grosjean’s fairy-tale, chapter-closing F1 test with Mercedes is still set to take place at Paul Ricard on June 29.
Speaking in a powerful interview on F1 podcast Beyond The Grid, Romain Grosjean discusses how he's dealt with flashbacks to his fiery crash in Bahrain last November.