Formula 1 pundit and former driver Romain Grosjean issued a public apology to McLaren and team principal Zak Brown on Sunday after misrepresenting Brown’s comments regarding Oscar Piastri during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Madring circuit.
Grosjean’s Initial Criticism Sparks Controversy
While covering the race live for Canal+, Grosjean sharply criticised remarks he believed Brown had made following Saturday’s qualifying session, where Lando Norris secured pole position. Grosjean suggested the McLaren boss had undermined Piastri’s morale.
“I saw a statement from Zak Brown about Lando Norris’ lap, he cut Oscar Piastri to pieces with a pair of scissors and a chainsaw right there”, Romain Grosjean initially said, after reigning world champion Norris had taken pole position at the Madring the previous day. “If Piastri had any morale left, he doesn’t have any anymore.
“The harshness, the violence of that statement… The question was that Norris had done a good qualifying and he was asked how to explain the difference. Basically, he said that Lando was world champion and that he was better than Oscar.
“He kind of forgot that last year, Oscar was leading the world championship, that at Monza they asked him to let Lando past and that perhaps wasn’t necessarily the thing to do at that point. It was surprising, very surprising, and it left me speechless when I heard that statement.”
What Zak Brown Actually Said
The controversy stemmed from a misunderstanding. Brown’s actual comments, made during an F1 TV interview after qualifying alongside Juan Pablo Montoya, Jolyon Palmer, and Grosjean himself, praised Norris’s lap without disparaging Piastri.
“The whole lap was amazing and Lando’s just getting better and better and better”, Brown had said. “When you see a lap like that put down, you just go, ‘he’s a world champion’.”
When asked by Montoya about the performance gap between the two McLaren drivers, Brown added:
“I think a) you got Lando on his A-plus game, right? So, I don’t think there was anything left laptime-wise there. So, he found that.
“Oscar’s been right there with him all weekend and just didn’t get that same extra lap. We’ll continue to look at it. He’ll look at the data and probably do what we all did and go, ‘wow, what a lap’ as well.”
Social Media Reaction and Swift Correction
Grosjean’s on-air remarks were widely clipped and debated across social media platforms, prompting the French broadcaster to clarify his error on Sunday evening.
Grosjean Apologises for Misunderstanding
In a statement released Sunday night, Grosjean acknowledged he had misinterpreted Brown’s words during the live F1 TV session he attended.
“Today, I made a comment on Canal+ regarding Zak Brown’s comments about Oscar Piastri during an interview yesterday on F1 TV, which I was part of,” he wrote.
“I completely misunderstood his words and want to apologise for that. I know how important it is to Zak and the entire McLaren team to respect their drivers and treat them fairly and equally.
“McLaren had the fastest car today and were unlucky with the VSC. I’m sure both Lando and Oscar will have another chance to fight for the win in Baku.”
