Romain Grosjean blasts “absolute idiot” teammate Alexander Rossi amid Andretti meltdown
Grosjean and Rossi made contact🎃, knocki🐻ng them both off course, and resulting in an argument over the team radio.
Team owner Michael Andretti was then seen in a 💛heated debate with Ro🍬ssi’s father.
Grosjean fumed on the team radio about Rossi: “What the hell is wrong💦 with him?”
Grosjean was then asked by𒐪 his team to hold up traffic to help Ross🦋i - but he refused.
“Because 🅘Rossi put me in the wall, so I am not going to protect him,” he argued.
Grosjean also made contact with f🍃ellow Andretti driver Colton Herta♏. Rossi bumped teammate Devlin DeFrancesco.
Grosjean said afterwards: “I must a⛦pologise to Colton.
“I had a lot more grip than ev🎶eryone else so I just braked. I didn’t realise Colton would brake so early. So I tried to avoid contact.
“That wasn’t good from my side, but I think that’s going to be it as🦂 far as today, it’ཧs just that Rossi is an absolute idiot out there.
“I don’t know why he does that.
“He’s on black (tires), I’m on reds. I’m on the outside, and I carry more speed through the corner. He did it onc🐼e on the rest🗹art. OK, maybe he slipped on cold tires.
“Do it again the ♚next lap, then he did it on p💙urpose. My hand is hurting. We lost the bloody race.”
Rossi said: “Just a racing incident.
“He was on a softer tire and probably going to get around me, but he likes to do it fast and early. I had to test him there and obviously that’s unfortunate to tap into a teammate, but that’s the way it ⛄goes.”
An Andretti statement said: “A round of incidents amongst te🐽ammates cost valuable track positions. The melee brought about high tensions and lowered finishing results.”
Micha🎀el Andretti called a furious team meeting afterwards.
“It wasn’t pleasant, but it was good that he did it,” Grosjean said. “I understand he’s frustraꦰted and not happy with us.”
Grosjean and Rossi are F1 veterans while Michael Andretti is☂ linked with 𒁃entering a team into F1.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering 🍒everything from American sports, t🐷o football, to F1.
