Lotus Renault announces Romain Grosjean to replace Vitaly Petrov – Formula 1 news
Lotus Renault - soon to be Lotus effective from 2012 - have announced Romain Grosjean as their driver alongside Kimi Raikkonen for the 2012 season.
Grosjean won the 2011 GP2 series and has really matured and developed as a driver, he also impressed in the first practice sessions in Abu Dhabi and Brazil and his inclusion in the Lotus Renault team will definitely bring a positive change. Considering the
return of Raikkonen alongside a young driver in Grosjean, it would make a good mix for the team.
The Frenchman has been on the fringes of getting a seat and finally gets one by replacing Vitaly Petrov. Petrov’s name did not show up in the FIA drivers list. This grew speculation over his future with the team and now it has been confirmed that Grosjean
will be getting the race seat with Eric Boullier confirming that Petrov is no longer in contract with Lotus Renault.
“I'm delighted that Romain Grosjean will side Kimi next year,” Boullier said. “Romain has shown a lot of maturity in the past twelve months both through his GP2 Series victory and his development as third driver with us.”
Grosjean’s inclusion has also been helped by the French sponsors Total extending their sponsorship for another year. Grosjean has said that he is very delighted at the news and cannot wait before he can get behind the when in 2012 competing with and alongside
one of the best drivers in the sport.
“I feel that my successful season in GP2 Series has helped me mature a lot, and I am a much more complete driver than I was last time I was competing in this sport. Returning to Enstone as a race driver feels like coming home. I will not disappoint and I
wish to thank all the people without whom this return to F1 would not have been possible,” Grosjean added.
It will be interesting to see how the two new drivers for Lotus perform in the 2012 season with the competitiveness reaching high levels as Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes are tipped to have a very close fight for the constructors’ championship.
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