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Although born in Switzerland (Geneva), Romain Grosjean races under a French licence and is, to all intents and purposes, French.
As ever, Romain began in Karts, starting off in 2000. Beginning with the Junior category, he moved up to Formula ICA just a year later, contesting the French championship for three seasons, in addition to some Formula A races in 2002.
In 2003, in addition to some Formula ICA events, he also got his single-seater career underway, winning all ten rounds of the Swiss Formula Renault 1600 championship.
For 2004 he moved up to French Formula Renault, finishing seventh overall, courtesy of a win and two other podium results. The Following year he won the title while also taking two podium finishes in the Formula Renault Eurocup.
In 2006, Romain finished 13th in the F3 Euroseries in addition to scoring two wins in the Pau round of the British F3 Championship.
He continued in F3 Euroseries for 2007, but moved to ASM, which had previously run title-winners Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta, going on to win the title having won six races.
Having taken pole position for the prestigious Masters of F3 race at Zolder, it was widely assumed that the result would be a foregone conclusion, however, Romain stalled on the grid and could only finish 14th.
In 2008, the youngster had a heavy schedule, for in addition to his GP2 and GP2 Asia commitments with ART Grand Prix, Romain was named test driver for the Renault F1 team replacing Nelson Piquet who had been promoted to a full race seat.
Romain got his GP2 Asia season off to the perfect start in Dubai, taking pole position and victory in both races. However, the next round, at Sentul saw the French youngster struggle only managing 4th in both races. He eventually won the inaugural title - with 61 points to Sebastien Buemi's 37 - however, one couldn't help but feel that the French youngster made hard work of it.
In the GP2 Series proper, Grosjean once again failed to convince, one minute awesome the next poor… witness his actions in the Sprint Race at Barcelona.
While he was the highest placed rookie in the GP2 championship, finishing 4th overall, he could and should have done better.
The new test rules in 2008 meant he saw little F1 action. Having made his debut in an F1 car at Silverstone - as part of the World Series by Renault weekend - Romain first drove the car in anger just a few days later at Barcelona, there were two further outings the following month at Jerez.
Although named as the official Renault test driver for 2009, the even stricter testing rules meant he was likely to see even less F1 action. Consequently, rather than sit around twiddling his thumbs, Romain returned to GP2, however with his seat at ART Grand Prix now filled by Nico Hulkenberg, the Frenchman accepted a drive from Spain's Barwa Addax.
Once again, Romain was infuriatingly inconsistent, brilliant one minute frustrating the next. Excellent performances in Spain and Monaco were followed by in Turkey.
Nonetheless, as Hulkenberg appeared to be waltzing off with the GP2 title, Romain got the call to replace Nelson Piquet at Renault, Flavio Briatore finally having run out of patience with the Brazilian.
Sadly, the new testing rules which effectively kept Romain out of F1 work in 2009 were also to impact his race performances. Having to get to grips with the R29 in the full spotlight of the F1 media circus was never going to be easy - even Michael Schumacher had to resort to illegal testing as part of his return - however, it's certain that the Frenchman could have done without the added publicity of 'Crashgate' and its fall-out.
In 7 outings, Romain's best qualifying performances were in Italy (12th) and Brazil (13th), while 13th at Interlagos was also his best race result.
As in GP2, Romain demonstrated that he has raw pace, however, even accounting for the lack of testing, he was inconsistent, making too many mistakes and enjoying more than his fair share of accidents.
At one time it was said that Romain would be the next big thing to come out of France, the heir apparent to Alain Prost, F1 team bosses, including those at Renault, are clearly not convinced.
Following his F1 debut at Valencia, Romain revealed that he still holds down a job in his local bank in Geneva, a means of keeping his feet in the ground.
With no sign of a return to F1 in 2010 and the Frenchman surely unwilling to return to GP2, it looks as though Romain might be spending a bit more time behind the bank counter.
Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season
Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 7
Wins: 0
Points: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0
Best result in 2009: 13th (Brazil)
Best qualifying 2009: 12th (Italy)
Worst qualifying 2009: 19th (3 times)
2009: Out-qualified Fernando Alonso 0 times
2009: Out-qualified by Fernando Alonso 7 times
2009: Completed 288 out of 341 laps (84.5%)
2009: Finished 5 times from 7 starts (71%)
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