Former F1 driver issues apology after McLaren misunderstanding

Romain Grosjean has issued a public apology after misrepresenting comments made by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown about Oscar Piastri during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

The former Formula 1 driver was on commentary duty for French television channel Canal+ throughout the event in Madrid.

During his broadcast on Sunday, Grosjean referenced an interview Brown had given on F1TV's post-qualifying show the previous evening, describing the McLaren chief's remarks as leaving him speechless and characterising them as a pointed attack on Piastri's performance.

He went as far as to claim Brown had said Norris was a world champion and simply the better driver.

The comments spread rapidly on social media, becoming one of the talking points of race day.

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What Brown actually said about Piastri

The F1TV interview in question featured Brown alongside presenters Laura Winter, Grosjean himself, and former F1 drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jolyon Palmer.

When Winter asked for Brown's reaction to Lando Norris taking pole position, the McLaren chief was effusive in his praise for the reigning F1 drivers' champion.

"The whole lap was amazing and Lando's just getting better and better and better," Brown told them. "When you see a lap like that put down, you just go, 'he's a world champion'."

When Montoya then asked what Piastri, who had qualified seventh while Norris took pole, needed to do to close the gap in qualifying, Brown's response was measured rather than dismissive.

"I think a) you got Lando on his A-plus game, right? So I don't think there was anything left laptime-wise there. So he found that," Brown said.

"Oscar's been right there with him all weekend and just didn't get that same extra lap. We'll continue to look at it. He'll look at the data and probably do what we all did and go, 'wow, what a lap' as well."

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Grosjean apologises to Brown and McLaren

By Sunday evening, Grosjean had taken to social media to set the record straight and acknowledge that he had badly misjudged Brown's words.

"Today, I made a comment on Canal+ regarding Zak Brown's comments about Oscar Piastri during an interview yesterday on F1TV, which I was part of," Grosjean wrote.

"I completely misunderstood his words and want to apologise for that. I know how important it is to Zak and the entire McLaren team to respect their drivers and treat them fairly and equally."

Grosjean also took the opportunity to reflect on McLaren's race day in Madrid, where the team lost a likely victory after Norris was caught out by the timing of a virtual safety car period.

"McLaren had the fastest car today and were unlucky with the VSC," he added. "I'm sure both Lando and Oscar will have another chance to fight for the win in Baku."