Romain Grosjean (French pronunciation: ​ gʁoʒɑ̃; born 17 April 1986) is a racing driver for the Lotus F1 Team. He races under the French flag in Formula One although he has lived his entire life in Switzerland. He was the 2007 Formula Three Euroseries drivers' champion and the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion and first drove in Formula One in 2009. He is the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and GP2 Series champion and is the first – and as of April 2012, only – two-time GP2 Asia champion and the only driver to hold both the GP2 Asia series and main GP2 series titles simultaneously.

In 2012, Grosjean returned to Formula One with the Lotus F1 Team, alongside Kimi Räikkönen.

At the start of 2011, Grosjean returned to the newly branded Lotus Renault GP team as one of five test drivers along with Bruno Senna, Ho-Pin Tung, Jan Charouz and Fairuz Fauzy. Lotus Renault had planned to run Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov throughout 2011 but Kubica had a horrific rally accident and was unable to drive during 2011. Former BMW Sauber team mate Nick Heidfeld replaced Kubica for the first 11 races before himself being replaced by Senna from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. In late October 2011, Lotus Renault announced that Grosjean would drive in the Friday practice session in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (replacing Senna) and the Brazilian Grand Prix (replacing Petrov).

Lotus (2012)

Grosjean at the 2012 US Grand PrixOn 9 December 2011, it was announced that Grosjean would make his comeback to Formula One in 2012, taking the second seat at the newly renamed Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault, the team that Grosjean raced with in 2009) alongside 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean set the second fastest time in the final free practice session, and while team-mate Räikkönen was eliminated in the first part of qualifying, Grosjean made it into the top ten – for the first time, as his previous best was twelfth place – and ultimately qualified in third position. He fell to sixth at the start and retired on the second lap after a collision with Pastor Maldonado, which broke his right-front suspension. At the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix he finished third, collecting his first Formula One podium and the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. In Spain Grosjean started third, finished fourth and set his first fastest lap in Formula One; the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. At the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix, he collected his second F1 podium with a career best finish of second, behind Lewis Hamilton.

Grosjean at the 2012 British Grand PrixAt Valencia, Grosjean was running second when the car's electronics malfunctioned forcing the Frenchman's first mechanical-related retirement of the season. At the British Grand Prix, Grosjean topped the timesheets during Practice 1 on Friday, but qualifying did not go as well. Right at the end of Q2 he spun into the gravel at the final corner after managing to get into Q3, this meant he could not take any further part in qualifying and started from tenth, although he was promoted to ninth after Nico Hülkenberg took a grid penalty. At the start of the race he was involved in an incident with Paul di Resta as the Force India driver clipped Grosjean's front wing meaning he had to pit for a new one. However Grosjean fought back through the field to finish in sixth just behind his team mate. At the German Grand Prix, Grosjean started nineteenth due to a gearbox penalty and finished eighteenth after picking up a puncture on lap one. A week later, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified second, the first time a French Formula One driver had started on the front row of the grid since Jean Alesi at the 1999 French Grand Prix; Grosjean finished third in the race behind Hamilton and teammate Räikkönen.