F1 cult hero restrained by mechanics in wild pit lane scenes: ‘I want to punch you’

Tempers boiled over in the pit lane as one crew chief had to turn into a bodyguard for his driver.

Romain Grosjean during media interviews
Romain Grosjean tried to confront one of his IndyCar rivals in the pit lane (Image: Getty)

Former Formula 1 racer Romain Grosjean had to be held back by a rival racer’s pit crew chief after losing his temper over an incident on track. The Frenchman is something of a cult hero among F1 fans, having started 179 races – the last of which came at the 202 Bahrain Grand Prix where he suffered a huge fireball crash from which, miraculously, he escaped with only burned hands.

Now aged 40, he races across the pond in IndyCar these days and has proven that a season on the sidelines in 2025 has done nothing to dull his passion for motorsport. He showed that at the weekend with an outburst in the pit lane following the Sonsio Grand Prix, held at the Indianapolis road course ahead of the flagship Indy 500 oval racing event at the same venue later this month.

A video shared on social media by experienced IndyCar reporter Marshall Pruett showed how Grosjean tried to confront Marcus Armstrong in the pit lane following the race. However, he was unable to even get close as several members of the New Zealander’s Meyer Shank Racing squad stepped in to restrain the furious Frenchman.

As two men put their arms on Grosjean and back him away from the pit box, the racer is seen shouting: “Get off, get off” at them, before telling them: “I was going to talk to him – I was going to say, ‘I want to punch you’.” Naturally, the MSR crew, led by chief Jimmy Looper, were unwilling to let Grosjean get near their driver.

By this point, several more staff members had joined the confrontation, creating a human wall between the Frenchman and Armstrong. It was only then, when he realised that he was not going to be able to force his way through, that Grosjean lowered his tone and asked more cordially to be allowed to speak to his rival, telling the men: “I’ll put my hands behind my back.”

Once things had simmered down, Grosjean was allowed to speak to Armstrong directly, although with Looper and another man still physically separating them. The two then were seen discussing things calmly, as Grosjean tells his rival: “I’ve never punched anyone in my life.” The reason for the confrontation remains unclear, though some have suggested a possible collision between the pair during the race.

In a later post, Pruett said he had been contacted by Grosjean who, as he had done when finally speaking directly to Armstrong, denied that he ever threatened to throw a punch. “Romain called to say he was simply trying to talk to Marcus and made a joke about wanting to punch him and that it was taken out of context and that’s where the misunderstanding happened,” the reporter wrote on X.

Meanwhile, Armstrong chuckled about the incident as he told reporters: “He fancied a bit of a fist fight, actually – bit of UFC, bit of MMA – something I’m not accustomed to. Hey, I’ve got a 350-pound fueller [Looper] who was right behind me. So fair play to Romain, he’s got some balls for trying to attack me with him behind me.”