Romain Grosjean named as Kimi’s team mate at Lotus

Lotus Renault GP, which will race next season as ‘Lotus’ has named Romain Grosjean as Kimi Raikkonen’s teammate for the 2012 season. The 25-year old Frenchman beat 2011 drivers Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna to the coveted race seat. Grosjean isn’t a stranger to the team however – he was third driver at LRGP and drove in two practice sessions at Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

Besides the two brief moments behind the F1 wheel, 2011 saw Grosjean become the GP2 Series champion. His previous stint in F1 was with Renault during the second half of the 2009 season, partnering two-time champ Fernando Alonso. After losing his seat, he went to first World GT1 racing then GP2, where he took the Asia and main series titles this year.

“After Fernando Alonso it is Kimi Raikkonen, so I am getting used to having a world champion alongside me. I think it is a chance because they are really good drivers, [but] they are more than that. You can learn a lot from them but, on the other hand, your first benchmark is your team-mate so if you manage to get to their level then it is very good for you,” Grosjean said about being Kimi’s team mate.

However, he’s hinting that he may not be immediately trounced by the returning high profile Iceman. “From Kimi, I have plenty of things to learn for sure. He is a great champion and a very good driver, as everybody knows. But maybe I can teach him something about the Pirelli tyres that he never drove, except for the rally cars one. The F1 ones are a little bit different, and it will be a good deal for next year. I am sure we will get on well together and I will learn a lot from him, so let’s see.”

Conveniently, LRGP and Total, the French oil company, at the same time confirmed that they have renewed their sponsorship agreement for another year.

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