Romain Grosjean: "This year we start again sportingly in the same place and I'm sure that if I'm ahead mid-championship it will be different" © Sutton Images
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Romain Grosjean expects to get equal treatment with Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus this season, but admits "the team is surfing on his name".

After Raikkonen returned to the sport in 2012 he enjoyed an impressive season to end the year third in the drivers' championship with one victory, while Grosjean showed flashes of pace but was banned for the Italian Grand Prix for causing a crash at Spa. Despite the contrasting fortunes last year, Grosjean says he's sure he'll get the same opportunities as Raikkonen this year on track, even though he understands why the team uses his team-mate more to gain exposure.

When asked if he felt like he was playing number two to Raikkonen, Grosjean replied: "In terms of communication, yes it is.

"I mean, Kimi had a very good season last year, he's been world champion once; it's normal that the team is surfing on his name. Then we played fair last year with two cars the same and once Kimi was ahead in the championship and trying to go for good results it's normal that he got the best of everything we could. But this year we start again sportingly in the same place and I'm sure that if I'm ahead mid-championship it will be different."

Grosjean also said he hopes to be given a clean slate by his fellow drivers following the numerous incidents that blighted his season last year.

"It will happen if I do my job, I do good races, no incidents and after four or five races I score good results they'll see that I'm OK. I think they know it, they know well that I've been winning championships so I think last year has been a little bit psychological.

"I made some mistakes, sometimes I was a bit unlucky and it turned out that it was a big story. It was lucky that nobody was hurt in the crash in Spa but I wasn't alone on that start. Anyway, I've been working a lot trying to change the risk management and see things a bit differently."

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1

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Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1 Chris Medland, who in his youth even found the Pacific GPs entertaining, talked his way in to work at the British Grand Prix and was somehow retained for three years. He also worked on the BBC's F1 output prior to becoming assistant editor ahead of the 2011 season

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