Romain Grosjean has thanked those who wrote him off after his disappointing 2009 debut.
When Nelson Piquet was ousted amid the developing ’crashgate’ scandal, Swiss-born Frenchman stepped in at Renault and failed to shine alongside Fernando Alonso.
So he returned to GP2, winning the title in 2011 and earning another chance at the Enstone based team - now Lotus - under new management.
"To the people who did not believe in me, thankyou — you made me stronger," the 25-year-old is quoted by the French language sport24.com.
Grosjean admitted, however, that his problems of 2009 were not other people’s fault.
"I think I was not ready, I made mistakes. I did some good things too but I overall I was not up for it," said the Frenchman.
"I must say the past two years were very useful and very interesting for me, and now I’m more prepared."