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Lotus F1 Team third driver Jérôme D’Ambrosio
will compete for the team in the Italian Grand
Prix as a replacement for Romain Grosjean who
received a one-race ban after the last race in
Spa.
Jérôme – who contested the 2011 Formula 1 season
as a driver for the Marussia Virgin Racing team
- had a seat fitting in the race chassis on
Sunday night in Belgium and is working closely
with the team to ensure a seamless transition
from third driver to race driver for Monza.
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
“When we signed Jérôme as our third driver we
signed a man who is highly motivated, fresh,
talented and who contested the full 2011 season.
We hope that this will pay dividends when he
drives the car this weekend in Monza. We know
that Jérôme is well integrated into the team and
that he did a good job when he drove the E20 at
the Mugello test. Now he has the challenge of a
Grand Prix at the challenging circuit of Monza,
in a car which is capable of finishing on the
podium. One thing is for sure, he’s half Italian
and I think I know which driver the spectators
will support apart from Fernando ! It’s a tough
task for Jérôme, but we will be supporting him
in every way to achieve a good result.”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, Third Driver
“My desire for 2012 has always been to get back
into the seat of a Formula 1 car so I am
grabbing this opportunity with both hands. Monza
is a fantastic circuit and I can’t wait to take
to the track on Friday. As third driver I have
worked with the team at every Grand Prix,
attending all the briefings and meetings that
the race drivers do, so I am well prepared in
this respect. Monza is a superb circuit, but it
is also quite a technical one so I am not
underestimating the task ahead of me. I want to
reward the faith that the team has in me with a
good haul of points from the race. I will hand
the wheel back to Romain after Sunday’s race and
I hope that this one showing in Italy will allow
me to show my capabilities fully.”
Lotus F1 Team’s Top Ten Facts about Jérôme
D’Ambrosio
1. He’s so eager he sometimes arrives at the
track before all the engineers.
2. His last race was the 2011 Brazilian Grand
Prix.
3. He was nicknamed ‘custard’ by his last team,
in recognition of the similarity named Ambrosia
custard brand.
4. He is The Master. Or, at least, he was the
inaugural International Formula Master champion
in 2007.
5. He is the first Belgian to race in F1 since
Bertrand Gachot in 1995.
6. He likes taxi drivers.
7. If he wasn’t an F1 driver, he’d like to be an
airline pilot.
8. He has very blue eyes.
9. His name generates ‘about’ 1,370,000,000
results on Google
10. At 1.72m he’s the team’s shortest driver.
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