Romain Grosjean confirmed at Haas for 2016

Haas F1 have announced in a press conference in their North Carolina base that Romain Grosjean will be racing for them in their inaugural year in Formula One. The news comes following much speculation about the team’s line-up, as well as the Frenchman’s future in the sport.

“I've spent ten years [at Lotus], I know the guys very well, and it would have been easy to stay comfortable and stay there," Grosjean said, “But in the end I want to try to win races, win championships, and I felt coming here to Haas was a good step in a good direction to achieve that."

Haas will have a strong partnership with Ferrari, which is likely to help the team become a midfield competitor within their first season. Also, with Kimi Raikkonen expected to retire at the end of next year, this puts Grosjean in a prime position to take a Ferrari seat alongside Sebastian Vettel.

“I like the fact it's different to what a normal F1 team would do, and it's an approach that could be pretty successful,” Grosjean added, “When you're racing in F1 you're doing so not to be last, but to be doing your best as a team and as a driver, and drinking champagne on the podium.

"I also like the partnership with Ferrari, with the way things have been going slowly and nicely, and I'm very happy with the decision.”

The team’s founder, Gene Haas, said: “This is part of our long-term strategy. F1 is a tricky business, and like any business you have to learn, and the best way is to learn from other people. Romain was one of several candidates, he has been in F1 for many years, and been excellent for Team Lotus.

“I reviewed a lot of videos of his driving style, and one of the things that is very impressive is that he has scored points every season, and our primary goal is to be able to score points.”

Haas admitted that he did not expect to sign a driver of Grosjean’s calibre in their first year.

“I'm a little surprised we got a driver with the experience he brings to our team,” Haas added, “Because it's going to be a real challenge and he'll be working a lot harder than he thinks he is going to be.

"He's a piece of the puzzle, he's going to be our lead driver and we will depend heavily on him to help us with strategies, with our car, with race tracks - and just learning the whole operation.”

Haas also admitted that there was a lot of pressure to sign an American driver, but said that there were none on the market that provided the experience the team was looking for.

“The reality of it was that a rookie driver with a rookie team just isn't a good fit. Our primary purpose here is to show that, as an American manufacturer, that we can compete in the most difficult, competitive series in the world of car racing - and that's Formula One.”

Team Principal Guenther Steiner revealed why Grosjean was one of the many candidates listed as potential drivers over the year.

“I started talks with Romain's management in Barcelona, to see if he was interested," he said, "We spoke to quite a few drivers but in the end I talked also to technical people - what they think about Romain, how he developed the car, because we have a steep mountain to climb.

"We need somebody who knows what he's doing and I think, in the end, we found the right guy. He's still aggressive enough, he still wants it enough.

"We picked the best one out there for what we're doing, we focused on him and we got him. And we look forward to working with him."

Esteban Gutierrez is favourite for the second seat, with the official announcement expected at the Mexican Grand Prix at the end of October.

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