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Romain Grosjean will leave Andretti Autosport’s IndyCar outfit at the end of the 2023 season as his options to remain in the series for a fourth year dwindle.
Grosjean switched to Andretti for his sophomore IndyCar season in 2022, having competed his rookie campaign with Dale Coyne Racing after a nine-year stint in Formula 1 came to an end.
His 2023 season began with a pole and a pair of second places and it could have been even better had he not been taken out by Scott McLaughlin at St Petersburg during their victory duel.
But his form thereafter dipped as he spent the next eight races out of the top 10 – a run ended by a sixth place at Nashville. By then Grosjean’s future at Andretti had gone from a no-brainer renewal to bordering on becoming an inevitable parting.
Part of that breakdown in their relationship included team owner Michael Andretti calling into question Grosjean’s teamwork and attitude in an interview with IndyStar.
Now NBC Sports claims Grosjean has confirmed his exit from Andretti to the broadcaster, with Grosjean revealing he’s talking to multiple teams.
“I cannot speak for what Michael Andretti is doing with the fourth car, but I do have other IndyCar teams that are talking to me,” Grosjean told NBC Sports. “I will land on my feet.”
Where will Grosjean land?
Grosjean was close to an extension with Andretti in May, which combined with his poor run of results after have meant that he hasn’t been considered a big player on the market, either because it was unclear if he was available or his form hasn’t put him at the top of people’s lists.
Upgrading his part-time Lamborghini sportscar deal to a full-time one in 2024 seems the obvious choice at this stage although there’s a small number of IndyCar teams that might want to take a punt on him.
In terms of potential race-winning teams, McLaren and Meyer Shank are believed to be full, so Rahal Letterman Lanigan would be his only shot but Grosjean’s bust-up with Graham Rahal last year may make that unlikely.
Elsewhere, Ed Carpenter Racing and AJ Foyt Racing should have seats available, while his old team Dale Coyne could look to bring him back although it’s not clear if the team would want to after he left for Andretti. – Jack Benyon
Andretti announced it had signed fellow ex-F1 driver Marcus Ericsson last week. He’ll join Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood in Andretti’s 2024 line-up with Devlin DeFrancesco leaving the team.
David Malukas was at one stage thought to be joining Andretti but he’s instead been linked to McLaren.
Andretti is yet to decide whether it will drop to three full-time cars next year but The Race believes that’s currently the most likely outcome.
“We are working on a fourth right now,” Andretti told NBC.
“To be honest with you, we really don’t know what we want to do yet. We hope to have an answer by Laguna Seca.
“There are a lot of things that go into a fourth car, not just sponsorship. We have quite a few different options we are looking at and see what the best one is that works for us.”
