RoGro vs Ericsson

[MonteCristo]

Both F1 drivers. One has 179 F1 starts, the other 97.

Yet one hasn't won a race in Indycar, and the other has won 4 times.

You might say Grosjean has been unlucky. He's finished on the podium 6 times. But Ericsson has a further 6 podiums as well (albeit across five years instead of three seasons for RoGro).

Maybe it's the extra two years of Indycar experience Ericsson has. He didn't do too much in his first two seasons, so maybe he took some time to get going (and to be fair, oval racing is a whole new domain for both of them).

But it seems like RoGro is if anything not getting better? 13th in the standings both this year and last year. Meanwhile, in his third season Ericsson had two wins and a podium at this stage (RoGro has two podiums so far this year). Maybe he's even getting worse? After all, he finished 15th in 2021, but he missed three races then - including the double-points payer at the 500. If he'd raced he'd likely be in the top 10.

So what gives?

Is it just age? Well, Grosjean is 37 - Ericsson is 32. But then you look at drivers like Will Power - champion last year at 41. Dixon - 43 and two titles between now and when he was 37 (and no worse than 4th in the standings in that time).

Can it be the car? Yeah, in part. Andretti isn't the best team out there. Ganassi and Penske are better, and arguably SPAM is equal. But Herta has been better on balance.

Or was Grosjean just overrated and not worthy of 9.5 seasons of F1? Was Ericsson worth more?

[John]

I don't think you can use a single series as a way of comparing two drivers - especially not one as lopsided as F1 if they weren't on the same team. There's probably a bunch of reasons:

- Grosjean is a headcase. Hell, had he won at St. Pete he might be riding a success wave into the top-five in the championship now.
- Andretti is also extremely streaky. Kirkwood is doing really well, but both him, Colton and Romain are very much up and down.
. CGR has had it figured out the past few years.
- Also racecraft and tyre management has always been Marcus' strong suit - I saw lots of stats showing that him and Leclerc were the closest matched teammates on pure racepace in their year together. The problem being that Marcus was a shit qualifier and always started six spots behind Charles.

[MonteCristo]

I don't think you can use a single series as a way of comparing two drivers - especially not one as lopsided as F1 if they weren't on the same team. There's probably a bunch of reasons:

- Grosjean is a headcase. Hell, had he won at St. Pete he might be riding a success wave into the top-five in the championship now.
- Andretti is also extremely streaky. Kirkwood is doing really well, but both him, Colton and Romain are very much up and down.
. CGR has had it figured out the past few years.
- Also racecraft and tyre management has always been Marcus' strong suit - I saw lots of stats showing that him and Leclerc were the closest matched teammates on pure racepace in their year together. The problem being that Marcus was a shit qualifier and always started six spots behind Charles.

For sure you can't compare like-for-like in F1 unless you're teammates. And even in Indycar it's not that simple.

But as a Swede, do you feel like Ericsson was short-changed with his F1 stint and should have had a shot at a better team? Or did he do as well as he could?

I think of Grosjean as someone like Hulkenberg. He's not bad, but how did he get a decade in F1? I see his performances now as showing that he's far from a bad driver, but that he isn't some F1 superstar either.

And as an aside, how do you rate Rosenqvist compared to Ericsson?

[John]

I don't think you can use a single series as a way of comparing two drivers - especially not one as lopsided as F1 if they weren't on the same team. There's probably a bunch of reasons:

- Grosjean is a headcase. Hell, had he won at St. Pete he might be riding a success wave into the top-five in the championship now.
- Andretti is also extremely streaky. Kirkwood is doing really well, but both him, Colton and Romain are very much up and down.
. CGR has had it figured out the past few years.
- Also racecraft and tyre management has always been Marcus' strong suit - I saw lots of stats showing that him and Leclerc were the closest matched teammates on pure racepace in their year together. The problem being that Marcus was a shit qualifier and always started six spots behind Charles.

For sure you can't compare like-for-like in F1 unless you're teammates. And even in Indycar it's not that simple.

But as a Swede, do you feel like Ericsson was short-changed with his F1 stint and should have had a shot at a better team? Or did he do as well as he could?

I think of Grosjean as someone like Hulkenberg. He's not bad, but how did he get a decade in F1? I see his performances now as showing that he's far from a bad driver, but that he isn't some F1 superstar either.

And as an aside, how do you rate Rosenqvist compared to Ericsson?

Nah, Marcus had his shot. The only teammate he beat on pace was Nasr, and even so Nasr was the one who grabbed the sole point for Sauber that year. He’s better off in Indy anyway and I’d rather see more swedes there than in F1.

Neither are title contenders but Marcus might make a run for it by top-fiving the opposition to death. Felix, I fear isn’t consistent enough. But he has more raw pace.

[PTRACER]

Grosjean's reputation of crashing has been carried over to Indy. He has had a few poles and podiums this year though so he just needs to put it all together. I don't think his age has much to do with it. Not in Indycar anyway.

[MonteCristo]

[Nononsensecapeesh]

I think Ericsson did the best with what he had in F1.

As for Grosjean, well we are talking a driver who was once labelled "A first-lap nutcase" by one Mark Webber. I think it's safe to say he hasn't quite managed to shake off his reputation for crashing even if it's not on the first lap as often as it used to be.