Lotus team principal Eric Boullier believes Romain Grosjean is now amongst the top three or four drivers in Formula 1, a group which often refers to Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
Grosjean has been on the podium four times in the past five races and equalled his best ever finish with second at the United States Grand Prix – only beaten by Sebastian Vettel.
Speaking about the Frenchman, Boullier described him as “super fast” and now amongst the elite class in F1.
“We’ve always known Romain is super fast, actually maybe too fast, and sometimes too fast for his car,” he said.
“He is starting to be a damned good driver. I think you can rate him in the top three or four today.”
Things have started to turn round after he settled down, married and had a child according to Boullier who came close to dropping the 27-year-old last year after he was nicknamed ‘crash kid’.
“Having some completeness with his family has helped him reach another level of confidence, and then you see the results on track.
“It is a combination between him [Kimi Raikkonen] leaving and his personal life being settled, which brought him a lot of confidence,” he added.
“That was maybe the kick he needed to take off.
“Now he will start next year in a different mood, and we will have a different perspective from him.”
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