Kimi Raikkonen will drive a black and gold Lotus powered by Renault in the 2012 season....

After Kubica told the team that he won't make the first test, team bosses jumped on the faltering Williams/Kimi deal and now have a top line driver to fill the void that Robert left...


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96573

No official word on who would be in the other Lotus, but it's believed to be down to just Senna and Grosjean as Petrov's outburst has him out of favour with team officials and Bruno has sufficiently impressed to be a preffered choice by the team over the Russian...

As far as the other teams... We know that these teams are out of the silly season...

Red Bull
Mercedes
Ferrari
McLaren
Sauber

Marrusia (formerly Virgin racing) have Timo Glock signed to a long term deal and rookie and former GP2 driver Charles Pic in the other seat...

Force India look to be keeping Di Resta and bringing Hulkenburg back into the drivers ranks... Which leaves Sutil without a race seat...

Word is that Ricciardo is going to move up the grid and head to the current Team Lotus, which will be known as Caterham as of next season, alongside Heikki and replacing Trulli.. Mainly because Red Bull are keen to keep both current STR drivers as they found it too hard to split them this season...

HRT have confirmed a return for Pedro De La Rosa, while Red Bull money could see Jean Eric Vergne take a the other seat...

That leaves Williams with no confirmed drivers, but it's believed that Pastor Maldonado will continue for Williams...

And also leaves this list of current F1 drivers without a serious link to a seat in 2012...

Rubens Barrichello
Adrian Sutil (matbe Williams)
Jerome D'Ambrosio (maybe HRT)
Vitaly Petrov (maybe Williams or HRT)
Jarno Trulli (could stay at Caterham)
Tonio Liuzzi
Karun Chandhok
Narain Karthikeyan

And of course there's Robert Kubica who's manager believes he will be fit for the start of the season, just not fit enough for the testing schedule...

Damn it's been 2 years? Happy to see the Iceman back on the grid next year.

Yeah good news, let's hope it's the hungry Kimi of McLaren and not the bored Kimi of Ferrari.

I'm extremely happy to have the iceman back, and that was a classic moment Chaz...

As for a un motivated Kimi, it was a risk the team had to take, taking 2 unproven young guys like Senna and Grosjean on instead of pairing one of them with Kimi... A un motivated Kimi will bring the car home in one peice, while a motivated Kimi will destroy the field in inferior machinery like he did at Spa in 09, and he did to Fisi for the remainder of the season... Kimi effectively retired him, like he did Schumacher...

Did Barrichello confirm if he's retiring or not yet?

I'm sure in his will it'll say he still wants to be under contract even when he's gone.

Retire from active racing, then maybe as a test driver, like other racers before him?

DTM, a popular grazing pasture for retired F1 drivers.

Well here's what the FIA says is confirmed... So there's still more seats in the air then I thought... And Caterham seem pretty keen to keep Trulli, which is a shame...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96592

RED BULL RACING (AUT)
Red Bull Racing Renault

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Mark Webber

VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES (GBR)
McLaren Mercedes

3. Jenson Button
4. Lewis Hamilton

SCUDERIA FERRARI (ITA)
Ferrari

5. Fernando Alonso
6. Felipe Massa

MERCEDES GP PETRONAS F1 TEAM (DEU)
Mercedes

7. Michael Schumacher
8. Nico Rosberg

LOTUS F1 TEAM (GBR)
Lotus Renault

9. Kimi Raikkonen
10. TBA

SAHARA FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM (IND)
Force India Mercedes

11. TBA
12. TBA

SAUBER F1 TEAM (CHE)
Sauber Ferrari

14. Kamui Kobayashi
15. Sergio Perez Mendoza

SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO (ITA)
STR Ferrari

16. TBA
17. TBA

AT&T WILLIAMS (GBR)
Williams Renault

18. TBA
19. TBA

TEAM CATERHAM (MAL)
Caterham Renault

20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Jarno Trulli

HRT F1 TEAM (ESP)
TBA

22. TBA
23. TBA

MARUSSIA F1 TEAM (RUS)
Marussia Cosworth

24. Timo Glock
25. Charles Pic



Oh and Rubens is trying really hard to get a competitive racing drive, but it's looking doubtful he'll get a better seat then he had this season...