
Kimi inspires a limited-edition Lotus Evora GTE
With Bruno Senna now out of reach at Williams F1, new boy Kimi Raikkonen has been roped in to sell a few cars for CEO Dany Bahar.
With Bruno Senna now out of reach at Williams F1, new boy Kimi Raikkonen has been roped in to sell a few cars for CEO Dany Bahar.
Williams F1 confirmed today that Alex Wurz has joined the team as a driver mentor and will assist race drivers, Pastor Maldonado and new recruit Bruno Senna make the most of the improved Williams-Renault FW34-01. Wurz last raced for the Williams F1 team in 2007.
Caterham F1 Team has announced this morning that Vitaly Petrov has joined the team as race driver, replacing Jarno Trulli with immediate effect.
Yesterday, Lotus Renault GP confirmed Romain Grosjean as its 2nd driver for 2012 alongside Kimi Raikkonen, displacing the team’s 2011 drivers Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov.
In a statement shortly after, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed Petrov’s contract had been terminated and that he would not be in line for the team’s test and reserve driver role (presumably linked to his recent outbursts against the team).
In an interview distributed by the company this afternoon, Ex-F1 driver and Lotus ambassador, Jean Alesi, shares his views on Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Forumla One driving for Lotus Renault GP.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Lotus Renault GP’s long list of talented drivers, all carefully positioning themselves for the two available race seats in 2012 – then along comes the IceMan, performs the undercut and takes the chequered flag, before any of them has time to pick up the phone to team-boss Monsieur Boullier and cry “Foul!”
The press release begins, “Lotus Renault GP is pleased to announce that Kimi Räikkönen will race for the team next season.”, but we’re pretty sure than sentiment doesn’t extend to existing drivers Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna, nor test and reserve driver Romain Grosjean.
If you’ve ever been to the Lotus test track at Hethel you’ll remember it as a challenging track – bumpy, off camber in places with minimal run-off. Lotus chassis engineers can describe every undulation and surface change, and have clocked up thousands of miles developing the class-leading handling traits of cars such as the Exige, 2 Eleven and Evora.
Sorry I couldn’t resist the headline – it was inspired by Lotus’ announcement this morning that the Senna name is once again united with Lotus as Bruno Senna signs with Lotus Renault GP as third driver and also becomes the latest ambassador for Group Lotus.
Piquet Jr joins the Campos-Meta team, with the help of his father’s money..