Grosjean: “I negotiated with Ferrari and Mercedes”

Romain Grosjean said he had negotiated with several teams, including Ferrari, until the 2015 driver market was rocked by Sebastian Vettel's move to the Maranello team.

The Frenchman could have left Lotus using a clause in his contract linked to the team's disappointing results but in the end he decided to stay at Enstone for another year.

“I have been negotiating with several teams for my future,” he explained to RMC. “I think the driver market has been shaken by Sebastian Vettel's move from Red Bull to Ferrari. He surprised everyone. We are still waiting to see what McLaren will do but there are other big names in Formula 1 like Ferrari and Mercedes. There have been negotiations,” added Grosjean.

Now the Frenchman is looking with more confidence to 2015 with the Mercedes-powered Lotus instead of the Renaults: “However, we will not know what the level of the car will be like until the first winter test, although this year, at the beginning, we thought we would still have a good car. You never really know how it's going to go. There have been ups and downs but this is still an excellent team."