A lesson for the baying mob

You can't be successful in any elite sport if you're too conservative. In Formula 1, where the difference between success and failure is measured in fractions of a second, that is doubly true.

The mob mentality is by nature conservative, which is why so few sporting entities thrive when managed by a large committee. This brings us to social media, effectively the 21st century digital manifestation of the mob.

It's all too easy to bemoan the 'modern' age. Doing so is as old as human nature itself. Actually, social media platforms such as Twitter are a great thing, but they are inevitably overwhelmed by those who shout loudest.

The problem is that, while there are plenty who engage with it who don't fall into this trap, the instant-comment culture encourages snap judgements and the formation of a lazy consensus.

Too often, this nullifies any meaningful debate as the echo chamber serves only to amplify conventional wisdom. Sometimes it's right, and sometimes wrong, but the prevailing opinion is rarely nuanced.

Which brings us to Romain Grosjean. Twelve months ago, the consensus was that he was an idiot, incapable of steering straight and that he should be run out of F1 forever and replaced by any number of solid, effective drivers with nothing like the same potential.

His blossoming into not just a consistently good grand prix driver, but a consistently excellent one with the unquestionable ability to deliver grand prix wins, is evidence of the shortcomings of mob rule.

Just a year ago, Grosjean was under fire © LAT

Grosjean certainly made some horrendous errors last year. He was rightly blamed for triggering the accident at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix that earned him a one-race ban.

Likewise, his foolish attempt to pass the HRT of Pedro de la Rosa in Q1 at Interlagos last year betrayed not a lack of spatial awareness, but an inability to assess risk.

Inevitably, conventional wisdom piled incident upon incident at Grosjean's door. Even ones that weren't his fault, such as the clash with Pastor Maldonado at the start of last year's Australian GP.

Grosjean's incident-prone tendencies were certainly a serious concern that threatened to ruin his F1 career. Yet what Lotus did, in the face of widespread criticism, was to back the raw ability of Grosjean and make damned sure that, if he didn't fulfil his prodigious potential, it would not be for lack of trying.

The team's reward is clear. It now has a driver who, over the second half of the season, has been one of the best performers. And Lotus has earned this through recognising true potential and giving it time to develop. In the world of snap judgements, this would not be allowed to happen.

In F1, a truly outstanding driver can make a big difference - just look at McLaren's willingness to re-sign Fernando Alonso after what happened in 2007. Lotus saw that in Grosjean there was the ability to be something more than merely good. So it backed him rather than sacked him and created the circumstances to allow him to thrive.

That strategy came perilously close to failing. In Monaco this year, Grosjean was seriously quick, but repeatedly clattered into the barriers on Thursday and Saturday, started lower down the grid than he should have and added insult to injury by running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo in the race.

It was clear he was getting close to the tipping point, but what Lotus - and particularly team principal Eric Boullier - recognised was that he was not quite ready to be cast into oblivion.

After Monaco, Grosjean had to get it together. And following a frustrating Canadian GP in which he was held back by a bad strategy call in Q1 and a grid penalty, his performances picked up.

This was at a point when even those who acknowledged his promise were starting to have doubts as to whether he would fulfil it. Having followed his career closely, AUTOSPORT has always recognised Grosjean's potential, even after his difficult 2012 campaign - particularly the way he was rehabilitated after a poor half-season with Renault in 2009. But at the halfway point of the season, doubts were starting to set in.

Grosjean has been one of the stars of the second half of the season © LAT

Ahead of the German GP, AUTOSPORT ran a column headlined 'Time for the rough diamond to deliver'. The conclusion was that the clock was ticking for Grosjean and that while he clearly had the ability to be a podium regular, he had to get it right.

As Boullier put it, "He needs to exploit his talent and forget about any fears"; something Grosjean has done to perfection in the second half of this season.

Had mob rule prevailed, Grosjean would never have had the chance to become what he is. Both Lotus and F1 would have lost a first-rate driver, one who has all the ingredients to be a regular winner in the coming years.

There's a lesson in that for those who leap to judgement, particularly in an era where testing restrictions mean a driver like Grosjean, with two and a half seasons in F1 under his belt, has only banked a fraction over 6000km of testing experience. That's less than Lewis Hamilton had before he made his debut and not even close to the 92 days Heikki Kovalainen had notched up before he started out for Renault in 2007.

So for those on social media, please keep discussing this great sport. A sport stands or falls on its fans, and you've never had a better platform to have your own voice. But with that comes responsibility.

Criticise mistakes, by all means, but avoid the kind of lazy stereotyping that would ruin the career of potential top-liners and leave F1 populated with conservative, solid performers who will make the most exciting sport in the world a far drabber place.

It doesn't mean wild and erratic drivers get a free pass forever, but they have to be given time to settle down. Just look at Gilles Villeneuve in his early days in grand prix racing for another example of a driver condemned before he had the chance to mature.

In short, back potential over mediocrity. That's what winners in motorsport have always done.