Lotus Renault GP and TOTAL are delighted to
announce that Romain Grosjean will race
alongside 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen
next season. The two companies are also pleased
to confirm that they have renewed their
sponsorship agreement for another year.
The 2011 GP2 Series champion gained useful
experience with the team throughout the year as
LRGP’s third driver. As part of his role, Romain
was rewarded with two practice session drives at
the final two races of the season in both Abu
Dhabi and Brazil.
Prior to claiming first prize for the DAMS
team in this season’s GP2 Series, Romain was a
title winner in F3 Euroseries and the GP2 Asia
Series before graduating to the Renault F1 Team
in 2008 as a test driver. Following this, he
stepped up to a race seat for the second half of
2009.
The announcement of Romain as race driver
signals the beginning of the Frenchman’s second
spell at Enstone in such a capacity.
Romain Grosjean: “I am thrilled to be one of the
team’s race drivers in 2012. 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.”
Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier, Senior Vice-President
Corporate Communications, Total: “Total is
delighted to give the young talented French
driver, Romain Grosjean, the opportunity to
fulfill his dream by becoming an F1 driver with
the Lotus Renault GP team. An overall mission of
our company, as is LRGP’s, is to support young
talented people and encourage them along the
path to excellence and performance. The
involvement of our Group in the highest category
of motor sport alongside Romain Grosjean, with
whom we’ve formed a relationship based on trust
over more than six years, goes far beyond the
purely communications aspect. It shows our
determination to develop the performance of our
fuels and lubricants with the aim of achieving
optimal energetic efficiency to help our clients
reduce and improve consumption. Formula 1 must
embrace the perspective of clean technology and
permanent evolution, and go back to its roots by
becoming a laboratory for innovation once
again.”
Eric Boullier, Team Principal & MD: “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.”
Gérard Lopez, Genii Capital, Chairman: “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.” |
