Giedo van der Garde may have raced only 19 Grand Prix in his F1 career, but he got to drive alongside some elite talent.
The Dutchman raced with Caterham back in 2013 having been a test driver for the team the year prior. Van der Garde also served as the test driver for Spyker and Force India.
Partnering Charles Pic, the 39-year-old had to deal with underperforming machinery as he languished towards the back of the field. He scored no points that season, with a best finish of 14th at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Van der Garde left Caterham in 2014 – the team would later fold that year – and served as the test driver for Sauber before leaving F1 and going onto endurance racing.
In his brief spell in F1, the Dutchman raced against multiple world champions including Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, who claimed his fourth consecutive title that season in dominant fashion.
Speaking on his DRS: De Race Show, van der Garde outlined the one driver who was ‘always whining’ during driver briefings.
Giedo van der Garde says Romain Grosjean was ‘always complaining’ in driver briefings
In his time in F1, Romain Grosjean established himself as a driver who could get results, but had an aggressive style on the track. The Frenchman grabbed 10 podiums in his career with Lotus and spent five seasons with Haas before leaving in 2020.
For van der Garde, while it did not happen often, it was Grosjean who seems to annoy him during briefings for races as he was ‘always complaining’ about his competitors.
The Dutchman said: “Most of the drivers always had a good point, except Grosjean. He was always complaining!
“[It was like] kind of a school class, the chill guests sit a bit at the back and in the middle. And those who like to talk naturally want to sit at the front.
“And then you had a Sebastian Vettel who always wanted to have the floor, which was natural, [he was] also the director at the time [of time] GPDA.
“He always did that well and sincerely and then you had such a Frenchman like Grosjean, he was always whining and complaining about: ‘I know a lot about what he has done. He has done that!’
“It wasn’t every race, but that happened maybe once, twice.”
Romain Grosjean struggled to perform in his five seasons at Haas
Grosjean had a fairly difficult spell at Haas from 2016 to 2020 as points finishes were infrequent, especially towards the end of his time there.
After helping the team to their best ever finish in 2018 with fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, Grosjean only scored points three more times in F1 as Haas’ financial difficulties began to affect the team on the track.
The Frenchman’s time at the team came to a near tragic end at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, when contact with Daniil Kvyat sent him into the barriers and caused his fuel rig to explode. Thankfully, Grosjean escaped the car with burns to his hands, but that would be the final time he would race in F1.
Guenther Steiner says Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were understanding after their sacking from Haas at the end of 2020. The former has since gone on to race in North America in IndyCar.
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