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...

If Williams gets a catering deal with McDonald's Juan Pablo Montoya will come back.

Lets update the list shall we

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. Romain Grosjean

SAHARA FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM (IND)
Force India Mercedes

11. Paul Di Resta
12. Nico Hulkenberg

SAUBER F1 TEAM (CHE)
Sauber Ferrari

14. Kamui Kobayashi
15. Sergio Perez Mendoza

SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO (ITA)
STR Ferrari

16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean Eric-Vergne

AT&T WILLIAMS (GBR)
Williams Renault

18. Maldonado
19. TBA

TEAM CATERHAM (MAL)
Caterham Renault

20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Jarno Trulli

HRT F1 TEAM (ESP)
TBA

22. Pedro De La Rosa
23. TBA

MARUSSIA F1 TEAM (RUS)
Marussia Cosworth

24. Timo Glock
25. Charles Pic

Nice to see Kobayashi kept his seat despite a spotty season, also surprised Jarno stayed maybe they fixed the power steering after all (BBC interviews he is always complaining about it)

Looking forward to another exciting season.

Indeed, tbh i've heard people saying Barrichello is past it etc, but i dont think Rubens is, the driver i do think that should now just stop racing is Trulli, i just dont think he can cut it at this level anymore, Kova destroyed him in terms of performance this season.

And yeah Kobayashi i really do love that guy, amazing driver, makes you wonder though, cos he didnt acheive much at GP2 level just how many GP2 drivers there have been that would of actually suited an F1 car more than a GP2 car. DRS has slowed Kobayashi's insane overtaking ability though which is a shame cos its always exciting seeing him launch one up the inside.

As for the Williams seat thats still available its got Sutil written all over it unless Alguersuari or Buemi stumps up enough cash to outprice him.

As for the last seat, being that of Hispania, god knows who is taking that, they are a lottery to understand at the best of times let alone them selecting drivers! could be any number of drivers i just hope it isn't Buemi or Alguesuari as i can't see it benefiting either of them, the only thing is they would stand a great chance of beating De La Rosa all season.

Also on the note of Hispania, they announced on the 16th of December, yes you hear me right December, just 3 days ago, that they are now actually deciding to start work on building their own car. So heres to another season of them missing pre-season.

HRT are a joke, they have wasted the last 2 years.

Maybe in 2012, HRT will ship their dampers to Melbourne a couple weeeks earlier this year, so they don't get "lost" this time...

SteveGee good to see you about, are you racing with us in SCES this season?

on topic though, yeah HRT are an absolute joke at the moment, how the hell they manage to get a better position than Virgin is beyond me both Caterham and Marussia should be way ahead of them but somehow no lol

Good to be seen, mr hill....probably won't do SCES, unless the fields thin out towards the end and people are needed. Looks like there's a good crowd lined up so far. Am looking at the 1985 F1 classic race for sure, though.

HRT ended up ahead of Marussia due to a 13th place finish at the quagmire known as Montreal last year. Gotta remember, that was around the time that Marussia/Virgin and Nick Wirth were in the midst of their fallout and was pretty much in disarray.

I'm hoping to see Caterham make the biggest move in 2012 of the 3 newbies, maybe even knock on the door of the midfielders a bit, given the right circumstances. The moving chicane known as Jarno Trulli is going to hurt their performance I think, though. I always liked Mike Gascoyne, I think he's kind of a poor man's Newey in some ways, just seems to get discontented quickly....usually with team management...and that's when his cars seem to suffer.

I'd also like to see Sir Frank's chargers right their ship...it's sad to see someone that's given so much to the sport over the years languish the way they have. They may be running Renault power this year, but that constant change...Cosworth to Toyota to Cosworth, now Renault...doesn't help make a good car design....although, starting with a clean sheet for 2012 might not be the worst thing for them.

I think the banning/re-interpretation of the blown diffuser is going to level the field a bit to start with...that is, until someone else finds a tiny sliver in the rulebook and shows up at winter testing with the latest, greatest thing that everyone tried to emulate. KERS and DRS, even though many consider them to be artificial passing "aids", really made everything happening behind Vettel interesting in 2011 in my opinion.

Only 76 more days to Melbourne....Forza Ferrari!

I wish you would join the SCES this year steve, we miss you. The racing promises to be awesome with only the two classes this time. Some of the practice races have been epic.

have to agree with pretty much what you've said there Steve

and i second what stewarts said, we miss you! come back!

And the field is deceptively large in SCES, as some drivers have multiple entries, and can't race all of them at the same time. We need all drivers possible.

Consider this thread hijacked.

Thanks, guys....there's already 25 entries into the series...I figure there'll be enough carnage without me adding to it, at least initially...

Back to F1...I'm also looking for to seeing everyone's favorite stripper dancing, bubbling personality Finn making a return to the grid. At the start of 2011, Renault/Lotus (glad they settled that whole damn naming thing, even though neither team deserves the right to be called Lotus, IMHO) had a pretty potent car...two podiums the first two races. They seemed to lose grips with the blown diffuser advancements the Big Three made and dropped down the field a bit.

Regardless of what the general perception of Kimi is or is not, he is one thing....talented. In 9 seasons of F1, he's never finished lower than 10th (1st year with Sauber), 2nd twice and he is a former WDC, winning the title in one of the closest seasons ever...1 point separating the top 3 in 2007.

As long as he stays interested (always a crapshoot) and the Renault isn't a dog and shows good pace....he could make things interesting for Mercedes' bid to reinforce it's place as the 4th best team for sure.

Karthikeyan completes HRT lineup for 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/16870272