Motorsports has a way of creating some of the most unique friendships.
Some happen out of necessity of working within the same team or paddock, others out of pure coincidence. In the curious case of Benjamin Pedersen and Romain Grosjean, it’s a blend of all the above.
Pedersen, 23, is making the step up to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this year after spending the last two seasons in INDY NXT by Firestone. The Danish-American will drive the No. 55 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Meanwhile, Grosjean, 36, will contest his third season in North America’s premier open-wheel championship during his second campaign behind the wheel of the No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda.
However, the two shared a paddock once before during Grosjean’s days with Lotus in Formula One. Pedersen’s father, Christian, worked with Microsoft Dynamics when the company was a partner of Lotus from 2012-15.
“Romain is a very close family friend,” Pedersen said. “My dad used to work in F1 for many years all the way back to that introduction, would've started with Lotus F1 Team in 2012. I met Romain when he was a Lotus driver for F1 back in that time period 2012, '13, '14. That's how long I've known him for.
“And he's just always super nice to our family. I met his wife, Marion, met his kids. When he came to INDYCAR, obviously he knew I was still racing in INDY NXT and so for the past year, especially now that we've been in the same paddock, we always say hi to each other, and it is just a really good friendship. We went surfing together, that was my rookie year in INDY NXT (2021) at St. Pete. We went to a surf spot and did some eFoiling together, and I did some posting with that, as well. But he's just super nice guy and a good family friend.”
While Pedersen admires Grosjean, there are no plans on racing him differently than any other competitor out on the track. However, it’s certainly an unreal feeling to race against someone he grew up watching as a kid in a different part of the world.
“It is because I've known him since how I was looking up to him -- I still look up to him -- but when I was looking up to him back in 2012 in F1, I wasn't even racing yet in F4 (United States Championship),” Pedersen said. “Like, you're already looking up to someone like that, and now to be racing against them is pretty surreal. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's just really cool.”
The Swiss-born Frenchman Grosjean, who scored 10 podiums in his F1 career and an additional four in INDYCAR, also recognizes his influence on the younger Pedersen.
“Yeah, it's really cool,” Grosjean said. “Benjamin asked me if he could use my helmet design for the last few years. In 2014, I think, he copied my helmet design for his first helmet. He's just changed now. He's got his own, but until that point, he was carrying the helmet in different colors but the same design, which I thought was super cool.
“Yeah, so I think he's a great kid. It's a great family. I've been following what he was doing.
“When you see someone at first like, ‘Yeah, my son wants to go to racing.’ OK, a lot of kids want to go to racing, but they pursue and they pushed hard, and I'm happy to see him in Indy. I think he did really well in INDY NXT, and I hope he's going to have a good season.”