Renault announced today that the team will pair Romain Grosjean with Kimi Raikkonen next season, when the team also officially becomes Lotus Renault. (And I assume we’ll all just shorten it to Lotus.)
When should we make that change?
Also from the team: Total will remain a sponsor for another season.
But back to the big news, especially if you’re Adrian Sutil or the DTM team that is pursuing him.
“I am thrilled to be one of the team’s race drivers in 2012,” said Grosjean, this year’s GP2 champion and a brief Renault driver in the post-Nelson Piquet Jr. time. “There’s a big grin on my face at the prospect of getting behind the wheel of next year’s car, and I feel very privileged to be given this opportunity. To be racing alongside a former world champion and someone who is hungry and returning to Formula 1 will be a great experience, and I’m sure will help raise my level of performance too. 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. Total, which supports me since 2006, and Gravity Sport Management, are first on this list.”
What are the expectations that he “will not disappoint” us all about, do you think?
Next up, team principal Eric Boullier: “ “I’m delighted that Romain Grosjean will side Kimi next year. 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. We were impressed when he drove for us in the first practice sessions in Abu Dhabi and Brazil. We are confident that drafting him in to one of our driver’s seats will help us in our rebuilding process. I would like to thank Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna for their contribution to the team’s performance this year and I wish them all the best for the future.”
You have to throw in the team’s real owner, Gerard Lopez, Genii Capital’s head: “Only last week I reiterated that the team is at the start of a brand new cycle. Announcing Romain as our race driver alongside Kimi is great news and will help us achieve our aims of getting back to the very top. The announcements we made today and last week are exciting ones for our team and there is a real buzz surrounding us now.”
The team also is handing out a quote from some schmo at Total, but I’m afraid that’s just not that interesting to me.
Frankly, I’m not sure that Grosjean’s signing is, either. (Obviously, I was pulling for a Kimi-Sutil pairing.) I suppose he has the GP2 champ cred, but I haven’t seen anything from him, personality-wise, that gets me in the mood to become a Renault rooter. But perhaps the team has enough personality (or personality via the lack thereof) in Kimi.
What say you? Good move? Solid one, if unexciting?
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