Why Grosjean believes he's in the right place to succeed in IndyCar

In his rookie season, Romain Grosjean was made to feel very welcome in IndyCar by everyone, it seemed –the public, rival drivers, the media, team owners. Equally, he and his family have been captivated by America and bought a house in Miami.

Yet you still get the impression that the real reason Grosjean is staying in IndyCar is to experience that winning feeling again. He arrived at the Lotus Formula 1 team with as impressive a CV as it’s possible to accrue in junior formulas, went on to score 10 podiums over the next four years despite never having the best car, and then felt his talent being wasted in increasingly uncompetitive machinery at Haas.

It’s little wonder the IndyCar rookie didn’t make a huge deal about losing a potential first win on the Indy road course last May to questionable blue-flag rules: the important thing was that he had fought for the win and been able to prove he still had ‘it’. Two more very hard-earned podiums later in the season confirmed that.

Now expectations have been raised by his move from Dale Coyne Racing to Andretti Autosport for year two, which kicks off this weekend on the streets of St Petersburg. Sure, Michael Andretti’s squad hasn’t won a title since 2012, but Alexander Rossi challenged for it in 2018 and 2019, and Colton Herta scored three victories last year. Could Grosjean be a title contender in only his second IndyCar season? For now he’s publicly damping down such thoughts.

“I have very little experience of the championship, especially ovals of course,” Grosjean admits. “Never done Texas or Indy, only Gateway, and this year we have two races at Iowa, and the Indianapolis 500 always counts for double points… So I need to make sure I score as many points as I can on ovals with