Formula 1: Will Haas re-sign Romain Grosjean for 2019?

With Romain Grosjean suddenly performing at a much higher level than he was earlier this year, will Haas re-sign him for the 2019 Formula 1 season?

One of the biggest disappointments to the start of the 2018 Formula 1 season was Romain Grosjean. In three of the season’s first five races, he was forced to retire, and two of those retirements came as a result of the fact that he crashed.

Through the first eight races of the season, the 32-year-old Frenchman, who is in his seventh season as a full-time Formula 1 driver and has driven for Haas since their inception in the 2016 season, failed to score any points. His best finish was an 11th place finish in the French Grand Prix.

As far as Grosjean returning to Haas in the 2019 season, it seemed like a done deal that he wouldn’t be after his disastrous start to the 2018 season.

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However, in the five races that have been contested since the French Grand Prix, it’s almost like Grosjean has become a different driver. Sure, he wrecked in the British Grand Prix, but other than that, he has been one of the best mid-pack drivers if not the best mid-pack driver in the field.

Grosjean has finished four of the last five races, and he has finished all four of those races in the top 10. He finished in fourth place in the Austrian Grand Prix, sixth in the German Grand Prix, 10th in the Hungarian Grand Prix and seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix.

In the last five races, Grosjean has shot up from a last place tie in the driver standings with zero points to 14th with 27 points.

No mid-pack driver has scored more than 27 points over the course of the last five races, and as a result, Grosjean has been the “best of the rest” behind five of the six Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing drivers during this span, as he has even scored more points than Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo (22) during this span.

The mid-pack driver who has the point total that is the closest to Grosjean’s during this five-race span is Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon, who has scored 26 points during this span.

Grosjean now trails Renault Sport’s Nico Hulkenberg, who leads the “best of the rest” driver standings in seventh place with 52 points, by just 25 points with eight races to attempt to make up the difference in his Ferrari-powered Haas machine.

The implications of Grosjean re-signing with Haas would start with the fact that Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc, the 2016 GP3 Series and 2017 Formula 2 champion who many people believe will replace Kimi Raikkonen at Scuderia Ferrari when he retires, would have to stay at Sauber for another season assuming Haas re-sign Magnussen as they are justifiably expected to given the stellar season that he has had so far in 2018.

With Raikkonen likely set to return to Ferrari for at least one more season, Leclerc, who is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, has been tipped to sign with Haas for next season, but if Haas re-sign Grosjean, that will not happen.

If this does not happen and the 20-year-old Monegasque returns to Sauber for a second season, this would also mean that Antonio Giovinazzi would not get a full-time ride in the 2019 Formula 1 season.

The 24-year-old Italian has test driven for Sauber this year after driving in two races for the team last season as the replacement for the injured Pascal Wehrlein, and he is widely believed to be the favorite to replace Leclerc next year, but only if Leclerc is promoted from the Swiss team to either one of the other two Ferrari-powered teams on the grid, Haas or Ferrari.

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Will Haas re-sign Romain Grosjean for the 2019 Formula 1 season, or will they sign Charles Leclerc to replace him? At this point, it’s still anybody’s guess.

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