2-year contract

Caterham F1 Team has announced this morning that Vitaly Petrov has joined the team as race driver, replacing Jarno Trulli with immediate effect.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Lotus Renault GP's long list of talented drivers, all carefully positioning themselves for the two available race seats in 2012 - then along comes the IceMan, performs the undercut and takes the chequered flag, before any of them has time to pick up the phone to team-boss Monsieur Boullier and cry "Foul!"

The press release begins, "Lotus Renault GP is pleased to announce that Kimi Räikkönen will race for the team next season.", but we're pretty sure than sentiment doesn't extend to existing drivers Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna, nor test and reserve driver Romain Grosjean.