Grosjean cautious with looming penalty: "I'm in a sh*t situation"

With a suspension looming if he gets any more penalty points on his racing licence, Romain Grosjean will have to be extra cautious this weekend amidst what he calls a "sh*t situation".

The French veteran nailed Charles Leclerc in the opening lap of last weekend's American Grand Prix, giving him two more penalty points on his racing licence. He's on ten penalty points now, two away from a suspension. One mistake in Mexico could mean that he'll have to sit out a race for Haas.

"I am in a sh*t situation," he admitted to Autosport.

"I've got two points left. I get one back after the [Mexico] race and two back after Brazil, so then it is going to be a bit nicer.

"But sometimes you take a penalty and you don't know why."

The 32-year-old isn't arguing with every penalty he's gotten this season, with the carnage he caused in Barcelona earlier this year standing out particularly as a massive mistake on his behalf.

What he did argue is that incidents on an opening lap need to be looked at with more common sense in his opinion. When talking about his incident with Leclerc last weekend, Grosjean thinks it could've been brushed off as a racing incident.

"Yes I made a mistake. I didn't want to take risks, I didn't brake hard enough, I didn't slow down enough in dirty air. But it is lap one of the race. Things happen.

"If you start putting penalties every time we touch, then the races are already not the most exciting thing in the world, so my goodness.

"You can go through it a hundred times.

"There are penalties you deserve. The points system: do we need it in F1, with supposedly the best drivers in the world? I don't know.

"Put it in NASCAR. Guys will be banned twice a day or three times a year."