Romain Grosjean and Sir Lewis Hamilton are known for not getting on at the best of times, with the pair having clashed in the past both on the circuit and over social media.
Grosjean, whose F1 career ended after his death-defying crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, is now in his second season racing in IndyCar, where he’s already a podium finisher.
The French driver made his F1 debut in 2009, after replacing Nelson Piquet Jr, at Renault, following the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix crashgate incident.
Piquet crashed on purpose to ensure that team-mate Fernando Alonso won the race; the Brazilian driver left the team halfway through the 2009 season after the controversy was revealed to the public.
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Grosjean completed the 2009 season but ultimately failed to deliver, he was replaced for 2010.
The Frenchman returned to F1 in 2012 to drive for Lotus, before switching to Haas in 2016, where he remained for the rest of his F1 career.
Since his crash, Grosjean has built up a large audience on social media, particularly YouTube.
The Andretti Autosports driver boasts 223k subscribers on the platform, and recently did a Q&A video which has amassed 171k views in four days.
The video sees Grosjean answer questions based on people’s google searches regarding him, with Hamilton being a constant name to pop-up.
Grosjean addressed one of the questions about the seven-time World Champion in detail, does he like Hamilton?
“Well, yes, [I have] huge respect [for him],” revealed Grosjean.
“He’s one of the best drivers ever. He’s been an incredible seven-time world champion, fighting Max [Verstappen] in 2021 in a really strong way with not the best car. In 2022, it’s been more of a struggle early in the year before bouncing back.
“I don’t know Lewis out of the racetrack, we never had dinner or meet or anything, but at the racetrack, huge respect. I like the way he drives, I like the way he gives it his all, all the time in a very good manner. So yes, I do like Lewis Hamilton.”
The pair could possibly be seen in a garage together soon, with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff offering Grosjean a test in the team’s 2019 or 2020 car, as a way to properly finish his career in the pinnacle of motorsport.
Hamilton and Grosjean have rarely seen eye-to-eye, with the pair having clashed in 2020 when the French driver supposedly didn’t believe ‘taking the knee’ was important, something which the Mercedes driver said he spoke to Grosjean about.
“[Grosjean] doesn’t think it’s important to do it,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 at the time.
“[Grosjean is] one of them that thinks that it was done once and that’s all we need to do. I tried to speak to [Grosjean] about what the problem is and it’s not going away.”
The duo’s most recent clash came on Twitter in 2021, where Grosjean believed Mercedes had slowed their drivers down on purpose during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, to ruin Red Bull Racing’s final run.
“If that was made on purpose, it’s not pretty,” tweeted Grosjean.
Hamilton hit back by posting: “I don’t make any tactical plays. We have the fastest car. Those who give comments like that have no idea what’s going on. Which also explains why they are not here.”