Kimi Räikkönen

With Bruno Senna now out of reach at Williams F1, new boy Kimi Raikkonen has been roped in to sell a few cars for CEO Dany Bahar.

Yesterday, Lotus Renault GP confirmed Romain Grosjean as its 2nd driver for 2012 alongside Kimi Raikkonen, displacing the team's 2011 drivers Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov.

In a statement shortly after, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed Petrov's contract had been terminated and that he would not be in line for the team's test and reserve driver role (presumably linked to his recent outbursts against the team).

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.