Numbers seven and eight

We continue the search for the stars of the future with numbers seven and eight, a Frenchman and another Swede.

Both France and Sweden have a history of providing top notch Formula One drivers, with Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux, Olivier Panis and Eric Bernard springing to the fore for the cross-channel crew and Ronnie Peterson, Stefan Johansson and Loris Kessel jumping out at me for the Scandinavian corner.

Perhaps it is about time that the Swedes fought back against the currently favoured Finnish contingent and showed true class, and with two out of the four so far hailing from the land of blondes, Saabs and Volvos perhaps Paul is onto something - let's see what he has to say:



8. Romain Grosjean

Where is he from?
Romain Grosjean a twenty year old from France. He was born on April 17 1986 is Geneva, Switzerland he is French that also races under Swiss flag.

What Has He Done?
Romain started his racing career in karts in 2001. He progressed to cars in 2003 where he took part in the Swiss Formula Renault 1600 championship. He dominated this championship taking an unbelievable ten wins from ten starts and ten poles.

In 2004 he moved to Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup. He ended the series in fiftieth place without winning. In 2005 he competed in Formula Renault 2.0 in France. He became the champion taking ten wins from sixteen races. He also finished twelfth in the Formula Renault Eurocup and finished in ninth place in the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix.

2006 saw him compete in the Formula Three Euroseries. He scored just one podium from his twenty starts on his way to thirteenth in the championship. 2006 also saw Romain take part in both the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix and the Masters of Formula Three. In both races he finished in fifth place.

What is He Doing Now?
He is currently racing in the European Formula Three Championship. He has so far scored 39 points putting him second in the standings after taking three wins from eight starts and causing enough controversial incidents to last him a lifetime. The controversial incidents involve running rivals off the road in both Brands Hatch and Norisring.

His career starts show that he has started 96 races finishing on the podium 37 times with 27 of them being wins.

My Prediction for the Future
France has a great tradition in motor sport and Formula One just doesn’t seem right without a French driver. There are a few talented French drivers out there but Romain appears to be the most talented of them all.

The only problem with him is that he is a bit unpredictable and has a tendency to run other drivers off the road as he has shown with two controversial incidents in the first three rounds of Euro Formula Three this season.


7. Sebastian Hohenthal

Where is he from?
Sebastian Hohenthal is a twenty-two year old from Sweden. He was born on November 5 1985 in Mora

What Has He Done?
He competed in karts in Sweden for four years between 1996 and 2000, missing the season in 1997. In 2000 he was awarded the Go-Kart Driver of the Year Award by Bilsport Magazine. In 2001 he debut in cars was in the Formula Ford Zetec Nordic championship in which he finished third and the Formula Ford Zetec Sweden championship in which he finished tenth.

He returned to compete in both championships again in 2002. He ended the season eighth in the Nordic championship and fourth in the Swedish championship. In 2003 he competed in both of the championships again becoming the champion of both. He also competed in the British Formula Ford Winter Series where he also became champion winning one of the four races.

In 2004 he did the full season in British Formula Ford finishing on the podium six times from his eighteen races on his way to third in the standings. He moved up to British Formula Renault for 2005 where he was fourth in the championship with one win from twenty starts. In 2006 he had another season in the British Formula Renault championship and became champion after taking seven wins from twenty starts

What is He Doing Now?
In 2007 he has made the natural progression and moved into the British Formula Three championship. He is currently eighth in the championship as a rookie with 51 points.

He career stats so far show 78 starts, 34 podiums of which 12 are wins

My Prediction for the Future
Next season he should remain him British Formula Three but moving from Fortec Motorsport to one of the front running teams. Once he is in a team that can challenge for the title his talent will shine through taking him to the top of the championship.

**Ed's note - the picture is simply an excuse to use that picture, and has no relevance to the feature....




Written by Paul Crossling (Edited Steve Turnbull) on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:11:31