The lure of US IndyCars, and most specifically the Indy 500, has long drawn the attention of grand prix drivers. Rudolf Caracciola practiced at The Brickyard in 1946, only to end up in a coma for several days after hitting the wall, while Alberto Ascari made an unsuccessful bid at the 500 in his first world title season of 1952, during a decade when America’s most famous motor race counted as a round of the nascent F1 World Championship.
But the true F1 love affair with IndyCars really began in the 1960s, when first Jack Brabham and Cooper headed to Indy in 1961, followed quickly by Lotus and Jim Clark, the combination that changed US racing forever by making the front-engined roadsters obsolete. But even though Clark famously dominated the 1965 running and Graham Hill followed up with his own victory in ’66, F1’s IndyCar dalliance proved short-lived. Through the 1970s, Mario Andretti switched back and forth between the codes, but the interest in Indy from European-focused drivers waned – although Clay Regazzoni qualified on the ninth row in 1977 in a Theodore Racing McLaren, before managing just 25 laps in the race itself.
Grosjean can take more inspiration from the examples of Emerson Fittipaldi, who enjoyed a long-lasting new lease of racing life via IndyCars in the 1980s and ’90s, becoming CART series champion and a two-time Indy 500 winner. And then of course there was Nigel Mansell, who monumentally boosted IndyCar’s global profile when he swept in and won the title at the first time of asking in 1993 with Newman-Haas, before the affair fizzled out the following season. More recently, Fernando Alonso starred on his Indy debut in 2017 – then failed to qualify for his next attempt.
But these most famous F1-to-IndyCar examples were high-profile world champions. That’s not Grosjean. Instead, there are other examples who are perhaps more relevant for a man whose F1 career ultimately turned out to be a disappointment.