Fourteen months ago, Romain Grosjean's reputation in the series was at a low. A crash-filled 2012 had seen him become the first driver in 18 years to be given a race ban after he was identified, correctly, as the guilty party in the multi-car accident at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, 2013 did not start much better. The Frenchman was labelled "an idiot" by the normally placid Daniel Ricciardo after the Lotus driver missed his braking point at the chicane in Monaco and ploughed into the back of the Toro Rosso.
The calls for Grosjean to be dropped were audible around the F1 paddock, and they were not merely malicious. When he was not crashing into things, he was being out-paced by teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
But give credit where it is due. Eric Boullier, Lotus’s team principal at the time, did not take the easy route out. He publicly stood by Grosjean and whatever he privately said to his driver had the desired effect; the mistakes stopped.
Grosjean in many ways was the star of the second half of the season as Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing dominated.
He came closest to interrupting the Red Bull domination in the latter half of the season, leading 26 laps in Japan before finishing third. He was consistently quicker than Raikkonen as he finished on the podium four times in the final six races.
Grosjean had proven that if he could avoid other cars and keep the Lotus pointed in the right direction, he was one of the fastest drivers on the grid. When Raikkonen left for Ferrari this season, Grosjean effectively became the team leader and the future looked bright.
Unfortunately, the Lotus E22 chassis has arrived and optimism has turned into depression.
In hindsight, it should not have been a surprise that Lotus have been so far off the pace this year. The team’s financial problems are well known, and they also lost their technical director, James Allison, to Ferrari.
The car lacks grip and, to add to their problems, they also have the down-on-power Renault engine.
It has been a difficult season for Grosjean and Lotus, with the 28-year-old Frenchman’s eighth-place finish in Spain accounting for all four of the team’s points in 2014.
He has put a brave face on the problems. None of them are of his making, but he is the one who has to deal with them on the track. In the meantime, he wins the only fair comparison for a driver with bad machinery: he consistently outperforms his teammate, Pastor Maldonado.
However, on Sunday, cracks finally began to appear.
He had been running just outside the top 10 at the German Grand Prix when a power failure forced him to stop.
“Unbelievable,” he told his race engineers on the pit radio. “What happened again?”
He cannot be blamed for being frustrated.
He has matured, cut out the errors and become a fine driver, and his reward for that is an awful car and engine.
Given Lotus’s financial problems, it is difficult to see things improving in the remaining nine races of the season. For Grosjean, it is now about what he does next.
Lotus will be powered by Mercedes in 2015, but a good engine cannot cover up all the weaknesses of an average car. Just ask McLaren-Mercedes.
Grosjean would be wise to look around, but he might not like the options that are available to him.
Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have their line-ups and midfield teams such as Force India and Sauber would be a step sideways.
His best chance may be if McLaren continue to be frustrated with the inability of Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, to consistently beat rookie driver Kevin Magnussen.
He has an in with McLaren, in the shape of Boullier, who is now the team principal and is a big fan of Grosjean.
The British team still hope to bring back Fernando Alonso for a second spell, but if they cannot capture the double world champion and want to make a change, they could do worse than Grosjean.
Until then, the Frenchman must deal with the agonies of driving a car doomed to finish out of the points, unless many of his rivals have problems.
His frustration is understandable, but Lotus stood by him when he seemed to believe F1 was a destruction derby. In return, he now needs to stick by them.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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