2012 Japanese Grand Prix ***Spoilers***

The incessant bastardisation of Grosjean in the media is, quite frankly, disgusting.

Yes, he's lacking in a bit of spatial awareness, but it's as if everybody has conveniently forgotten his podiums this season and the fact that he's won a whole host of junior categories including F3 Euroseries, GP2, GP2 Asia and Auto GP. You don't win all of these without being good and although I'm not a self-confessed Grosjean fan, he's a talented driver who could quite possibly do rather well in the future.

If he can stop getting flustered on the first lap then he's always in with the chance of a good result. Singapore was one example of this, but I guess it suits the media better to be defamatory towards him. If he keeps his head down, the witch-hunt will probably cease (like it has for Maldonado).

Look at the footage; Grosjean's keeping his distance from Perez because he's making an effort to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, Webber drifts across at a rather leisurely pace and Grosjean's probably taken a little by surprise. That doesn't provide a full excuse for the incident and Grosjean should have perhaps looked more where he was going but the comments of some of the so-called F1 'elite' (Button and Webber) were just unnecessarily rude.

Let's use an example, Andrea De Cesaris was a similar driver at the nascent stages of his F1 career, hence the nickname 'De Crasheris'. However, he developed and ended up producing a total of 208 race starts. Grosjean's still in his first full season; a little bit of slack needs to be given.

That said, perhaps the management need to help him out a little more so that psychologically he can regroup. The presence of Alexander Wurz in the Williams garage looks to have helped Maldonado out a bit so why don't Lotus hire a driver coach? Jean Alesi was another crash-prone driver in the lower formulae, and according to Eddie Jordan's autobiography he insisted that Alesi live with him so that he can try and mentally sort him out. Drivers are still human, they need managing and reassuring.

I should perhaps apologise a little for what might be construed as a rant, but I'm sick of the media pinning all the blame on him despite the fact that some drivers have done worse previously and not faced such a barrage. Especially last season, a certain driver kept crashing and never faced the sheer level of criticism.

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Incident2k9
Let's use an example, Andrea De Cesaris was a similar driver at the nascent stages of his F1 career, hence the nickname 'De Crasheris'. However, he developed and ended up producing a total of 208 race starts. Grosjean's still in his first full season; a little bit of slack needs to be given.

Ah yes, de Cesaris is remembered fondly as well, isn't he... oh actually no, he's remembered as a death trap that other drivers felt unparalleled anger towards (except by Hunt, who seemingly hated Patrese more, and he still felt Andrea didn't have a place in motorsport).

Sorry, but Grosjean isn't a kid. He's a 26 year old man who made his (ill-advised) F1 debut more than 3 years ago and has raced a high level series for I don't know how many years.

If he hasn't developed his skills into avoiding accidents now, he isn't going to improve. Just like de Cesaris didn't really improve.

Hunt's snipes at de Cesaris were as harsh as any I've come across in old F1 videos - they were epic.

Another good comparison with Grosjean IMO would be Philippe Alliot.

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