Lotus stick with Grosjean
Romain Grosjean will once again partner Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus next season, the team have confirmed.
Romain Grosjean will once again partner Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus next season, the team have confirmed.
The Frenchman finished eighth in the 2012 Drivers’ Championship after claiming podium finishes in Bahrain, Canada and Hungary.
However, while Grosjean often carried a lot of pace, he was involved in a number of accidents and was given a one-race ban after his crash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Despite this, Lotus have kept faith in the driver who first spent half a season with them in 2009 before taking part in the GP2 series for two years only to return to F1 once more this year.
“Romain is a great talent and we are pleased that he is continuing with us for a second season,” commented team boss Eric Boullier.
“With the continuity of two exceptional drivers like Romain and Kimi we are well placed to build on our strong 2012 with even better results in the year ahead.
“Both drivers worked very well together in their first year as team-mates, and I think there is the potential of even better things from the season ahead. We were regular visitors to podiums in 2012 and we certainly intend to continue with this trend in 2013.”
The 26-year-old Grosjean expressed his understandable delight at retaining his race-seat and admitted he has learnt a lot from the past season.
“It’s fantastic for me to be continuing with Lotus F1 Team for 2013. It’s superb to have the support of everyone at Enstone,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to rewarding their faith when we take to the track in Australia. I learnt a lot in my first full season in Formula 1 and my aim is to put these lessons into practice with stronger and more consistent performance on track next year.
“There are a lot of exciting developments occurring behind the scenes at Enstone and I am very excited with the prospect of the E21. I’ve already had my seat fitting and spoken with all the personnel involved with the build of the new car ; I just can’t wait to get behind the wheel.”