Romain Grosjean arrived at The Thermal Club, confident in his new beginning with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
It’s Grosjean’s third different NTT IndyCar Series team in the last four seasons, ever since the former Haas-F1 driver left Formula One to find a new opportunity in the United States.
The driver from Switzerland and a citizen of France was instantly popular with the fans during his first season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2021. When he moved over to Andretti Global for the 2022 season with DHL sponsorship, Grosjean was expected to become an IndyCar star.
But two seasons with Andretti did not fare as expected for either the driver or the team. That has brought him to Juncos Hollinger, a team co-owned by former driver Ricardo Juncos and former Williams F1 principal Brad Hollinger.
Before hitting the track on Friday at The Thermal Club, site of a two-day IndyCar test session before The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge on Sunday, Grosjean spoke to a group of reporters at Thursday’s media luncheon.
The Thermal Club is a private community for the ultra-rich near Palm Springs, Calif. Many of its members are motorsports enthusiasts and was the home to last year’s IndyCar Preseason Open Test. It’s a 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course that features a variety of areas that can help teams prepare for other circuits on the IndyCar schedule.
“I am really happy that we are here because we get a lot of testing, and we haven’t had any tests on road course with Juncos so it’s going to be a good three four sessions to get up to like the baseline setup,” Grosjean said. “I think on the road on straight course we’ve proven that we have something that is very workable with.
“On road courses, I have got no idea so in that aspect I’m really glad that we have got that event here and so much testing and for once we have a good amount of cars. I was kind of happy with the base we had last year, with my car and we were pretty decent on road courses. I believe it’s a very good testing track.
“Race-wise, let’s see what it’s going to be like. If you look at the layout, they are in that many passing zones, but again, sometimes you think of that of a race track and then there’s really good racing, sometimes you think it’s going to be a really exciting race and it ends up being a boring race.”
How The Thermal Club translates in a race for cash on Sunday will be determined by the 12 cars and drivers that advance through the two Sunday morning heat races.
Because this race is a “special event” that doesn’t pay championship points, drivers may take a few more chances than in a regular season contest that could be costly in the championship battle.
“I think there is really only one big braking zone, maybe two if you take the couple of hairpins turn one and turns whatever that is there, 5, 6, 7,” Grosjean explained of the unique course. “Then it’s a fast left and you go to the very fast section then the last corner is fast and even with that little curve in turn 17 it’s not like you can use a good burst of push-up pass of the last corner to get a good run on it so yes a little bit of everything.
“It’s not very wide. If you take Road America look at the paper you say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get a good racing.’ You look at Mid-Ohio you know it’s going to be a little bit more complicated. You look at the paper here and it’s more complicated. But for a million bucks on the line, I’m sure some people are going to try things.
“If you are sitting third, maybe you wait for the first two to go off, cleaning the road for you.”
In his first race with Juncos Hollinger Racing in the March 10 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Grosjean qualified the No. 77 Chevrolet fifth on the grid and was competitive for much of the race. But he dropped out on Lap 82 with mechanical failure on the car and finished 24th.
Despite the early exit, Grosjean was impressed with the team’s effort.
“Yeah, I think St. Pete was very positive in a lot of aspects,” he said. “The end result was not good. We’ve realized that we really need to do a lot of effort on pit stops. We lost too many spots. I played it a little bit conservative at the start and got stuck behind Rinus VeeKay and that basically ruined my whole race.
“We never managed to run the overcut and undercut and didn’t have much space and we just got stuck there. After the race I thought that we had a balance that I could have won the race, but we didn’t do it. Some of my fault, some of the team’s fault and then, yeah, they got the drive through penalty and the gearbox anyway.”
Grosjean is using the weekend at The Thermal Club as a chance to move forward and help JHR become a more competitive team in IndyCar. He isn’t going to let the big money that goes to the winner dazzle him, Grosjean’s competitive fire as a racer remains fierce.
“Do the best we can,” Grosjean said. “I don’t care if it’s points of money at the end of the line, I do it for passion, I do it because I love racing.”
So does his team owner, Ricardo Juncos.
“He’s very passionate,” Grosjean said of Juncos. “I love that about him. He is very aware of where we are, where he wants to go. He’s very aware of things that we need to improve. He’s got that emotion, and I don’t know if it’s the word fire, but it’s the word that comes in mind that I love, that I have the same about racing.
“But he also understands the amount of work and energy it takes to do so.
“He’s one of the reasons that I am at JHR today. Ricardo definitely doesn’t mind sweeping the floor or doing a seat fit if it’s necessary. I really appreciate that about him.”