Formula 1 Photos

Driver changes in 2012 F1 season

March 03, 2012 14:44

Big teams like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have retained their 2011 drivers' line-ups but there has been a lot of shuffling in the smaller teams. While Rubens Barrichello, the driver with the most F1 Grands Prix ever, has been shown the door, some new faces have come in. Here's a look at the teams that have made changes....

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Big teams like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have retained their 2011 drivers' line-ups but there has been a lot of shuffling in the smaller teams. While Rubens Barrichello, the driver with the most F1 Grands Prix ever, has been shown the door, some new faces have come in. Here's a look at the teams that have made changes....
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Lotus-Renault: The new look Renualt team has gone for a complete revamp. It not only has a new name - Lotus - but has also replaced both its drivers from last season. Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov have made way for veteran Kimi Raikkonen (L) and rookie Romain Grosjean (R). While Raikkonen has made a comeback into F1 after spending the last two years in World Rally Championship, Grosjean has been elevated from his test driver's role. The 2011 GP2 and GP2 Asia series winner, Grosjean, has previously raced for Renault in 2009, replacing Nelson Piquet Jr. midway through the season.
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Sahara Force India: Paul di Resta (C), who made his F1 debut with the team in 2011, has retained his place in the team after finishing 13th in the drivers' standings and helping his team finish at the sixth spot. However, German Adrian Sutil, who had been with Force India since its inception in 2008, has been replaced by compatriot Nico Hulkenberg (R), a test driver with the team last season. Sutil has been left without a race seat despite finishing ninth in the 2011 season.
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Williams: Having endured its worst season in F1 history, with only five points and a ninth-place finish in 2011, changes were expected in the Williams camp. Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado (R) nevertheless managed to keep his spot in the team but veteran Rubens Barrichello faced the axe that effectively ended F1's most experienced driver's formula one career. Williams have replaced Barrichello with Bruno Senna (L) who drove for Renualt in the latter half of the last season.
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Toro Rosso: Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were both given the boot in favour of Daniel Ricciardo (L) and Jean-Eric Vergne (R) by Red Bull's sister team. Ricciardo was Toro Rosso's test driver and also raced for HRT last season while Vergne is a former British Formula Three champion (2010). Both drivers have been Red Bull Junior Team members.
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Caterham: The Team Lotus from last season has been rechristened Caterham from 2012 onwards. The Tony Fernandes-owned team has retained Heikki Kovalainen (R) but brought in Russian Vitaly Petrov (L) for Italian Jarno Trulli. The Italian had been re-signed by Caterham for the 2012 season before being dropped in favour of Petrov, who it seems has more sponsors backing him. It was hardly a surprise then when Russian petrochemical company Sibur joined Caterham as a sponsor just three days after the team announced its association with Petrov.
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Hispania Racing Team: Despite replacing Narain Karthikeyan (L) with Daniel Ricciardo midway through the last season, HRT has chosen to keep the Indian in its line-up for 2012. They have instead opted to replace Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi with Pedro de la Rosa (R) of Spain.
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Marussia: The bottom of the table team has kept faith in German Timo Glock (R)but said goodbye to Belgian Jerome d'Ambrosio. Marussia have instead brought in 22-year-old Charles Pic (L) who finished fourth in GP2 in 2011.

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