Romain Grosjean apologized to Zak Brown after admitting he had misinterpreted the statements of the McLaren CEO regarding Oscar Piastri following qualifying in Madrid on Saturday.
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The Frenchman had stated on Canal+ that Brown had harshly criticized the Australian after the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, whereas his remarks were actually much more measured.
Present at the Madring in his role as a consultant for Canal+ and also appearing on F1 TV, Grosjean found himself at the center of a misunderstanding concerning Zak Brown and Oscar Piastri.
Norris better than Piastri
The former Lotus and Haas driver had participated on Saturday in an F1 TV segment during which Brown was interviewed after qualifying. Lando Norris had just secured pole position, while his teammate Piastri had to settle for seventh place, four tenths behind the Briton.
Asked what Piastri lacked to compete with his teammate, Brown primarily emphasized the exceptional quality of Norris’s lap: “I think Lando was at his best, so I don’t believe there was anything left to find in terms of time. And yet, he found it,” explained the American executive.
Brown also pointed out that Piastri had been close to Norris throughout the weekend, but simply did not manage to find the same extra performance at the decisive moment: “Oscar was right next to him all weekend, but he just didn’t find that same little extra on that lap.”
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The McLaren boss added that the team would analyze the data and that Piastri himself would probably realize how successful Norris’s lap had been: “He will probably look at the data and do like all of us: ‘Wow, what a lap!’”
Grosjean admits to misunderstanding Brown
The next day, during the Grand Prix, Grosjean revisited this interview in his comments for Canal+. The Frenchman had presented Brown’s statements in a much harsher way, notably claiming that the McLaren executive had “cut down” Piastri’s performance.
Grosjean also indicated that Brown had justified the gap between his drivers by explaining that Norris was a world champion and simply better than Piastri. However, this was not what Brown had said during the interview.
A few hours after the race, Grosjean published a message on social media to acknowledge his mistake and humbly apologize: “Today, I made a comment on Canal+ F1 regarding Zak Brown’s statements about Oscar Piastri during an interview yesterday on F1 TV, in which I participated. I completely misunderstood his remarks and I want to apologize for that.”
Grosjean thus quickly corrected his statements, acknowledging that he had attributed to Brown a much harsher comparison between Norris and Piastri than the one actually made by the McLaren boss.
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