How Grosjean has turned into a Raikkonen beater

A year is a very long time in Formula 1.

Twelve months ago, Romain Grosjean left Suzuka with his tail between his legs, and his ears burning after a verbal bashing in the Lotus offices from Mark Webber, who had confronted the 'first lap nutcase' following their Turn 2 collision.

This weekend, Grosjean is turning up at the Japanese Grand Prix not only having banished his starting blues, but turned himself into a phenomenal package that is putting the heat on team leader Kimi Raikkonen to lift his game.

It's not been an easy journey to get here, and there have been occasions this year, especially around Monaco GP time, when even senior management inside his team had doubts that he would do it.

But he has. At last weekend's Korean Grand Prix his drive was stupendous, and it was only atrocious bad luck through the safety car eroding a massive advantage he'd built up over Raikkonen that meant the Finn was close enough to pounce on his single error.

To compound the misfortune, Grosjean's chances of responding to Raikkonen's pass were wrecked by yellow flags and DRS being disabled, leaving him fuming in the car.

Yet the fact that Grosjean was beaten to second by Raikkonen should not be taken as evidence that the Frenchman still needs to do more before he proves he has what it takes to lead the team forward. He's there now.

In the past six races - which spans a period from the German Grand Prix where team insiders suggest something clicked in Grosjean's head - he has been a mighty force.

He has outqualified Raikkonen four times and is showing that he can compete with anyone at the front end of the field.

Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane has worked with them all at Enstone, and sings Grosjean's praises. He has no doubts he is a changed man from last year.

Grosjean was not thrilled after losing second in Korea © LAT

"Hugely," says Permane. "He ended last year in reasonable shape. He had another accident on the first lap at Suzuka with Mark, so he was finishing the season very gingerly and he started off this season really gingerly I think.

"Then we had Monaco, which was a total disaster for him. He was so quick; he was super, super quick, but just didn't get it together. He kept crashing and had a terrible qualifying.

"Then we as a team had a couple of pretty average races honestly but then, about Nurburgring time, something changed in him."

Being a successful racing driver these days goes far beyond just being quick in the car. There's the mental approach to the job; the efforts required to drive improvements and team developments - and knowing what to prioritise for maximum impact.

It's the area of focus - and not getting distracted by the wrong details - that Permane suggests has contributed to Grosjean's lift in form.

"His attitude has changed. He is much, much calmer out of the car. He is focusing on the right thing and not getting stressed and panicking, not having his hysterical moments like 'I've got no grip' or 'the brakes are terrible'.

"Whenever you drive one of these cars, there is always a problem. There is always something wrong, and you never have it 100 per cent right.

"Before, he would focus on that and that it would drag the rest of it down. But now he has the ability to say, 'that bit isn't working', so we'll put that over there for later and work on the 100 other things we really do have to worry about. When they're done, we can sort that other bit out."

Perhaps developments in his family life have played their part too.

Permane adds: "One of the things that has happened to him as a hugely life-changing event is that he's had a baby this year. It didn't coincide with the Nurburgring but it wasn't far off then.

"I wonder if it's made him realise that there's more to life than worrying about the braking into Turn 1. It's enabled him to relax a little bit. I don't know - but whatever has happened, it's for the good and he's just getting stronger and stronger and stronger."

There are also some technical issues that have played their part in allowing Grosjean to make progress.

"One area that he likes to have right in the car is his braking and that sets up the whole corner for him.

"With KERS, you have the ability to take more or less energy from the rear axle during braking, and that affects the brake balance. So we can change the shape of the mapping and affect that.

Permane with Grosjean © LAT

"That took a little bit of time to get absolutely to his liking. Now we've got it to his liking, and what was a big part of Fridays has gone. So he starts off at a higher level and can concentrate on getting the rest of it done."

A clear sign of the faith that Lotus has in Grosjean has been in evidence in recent grands prix, when the team has heaped tremendous pressure on him by trying to get him through Q1 without using option tyres.

It is a do-or-die-moment - and one teams will only let their drivers do if they're totally convinced they won't mess it up.

"For qualifying in Korea and in Singapore we put him under massive, massive pressure," says Permane.

"We tell him, 'You can go through Q1 on prime tyres but you can't go at the start on primes because the track evolution is so big. You're going to have to go at the end.

"And, by the way, if you get it wrong you won't have time to put a set of options on because if we put you out early enough to be able to put a set of options on after, you can't take advantage of track evolution and you're not going to be quick enough.

"So he says, 'Let's go for it', we do it and he delivers. That's a big change. Before he would have locked up, but now he is delivering."

Permane is adamant that having a driver who can deliver like that in qualifying - an area in which, for all his race craft strengths, Raikkonen has not excelled - is essential.

"I don't want to speak ill of him, because Kimi has been absolutely fantastic for us, he really has. You can see the last two races he has qualified poorly and he's been on the podium.

"But that can't happen always. You have to be able to qualify well and race well and there's no doubt he races well. But he doesn't have the greatest of qualifying speed and, if next year the tyres get a bit harder, maybe he'll struggle a little bit more."

While everyone at Lotus would have loved Raikkonen to stay, the ever-improving Grosjean has given the team genuine reason to feel confident about the future, especially if it can also win the fight for Nico Hulkenberg's services.

Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton may be the big names now. But, judging by Korea, the new generation is coming fast.