Mike Conway will part ways with Andretti Autosport and join A.J. Foyt Racing for the 2012 IndyCar season and will replace Vitor Meira.
Dec 212011
Dec 202011
Volkswagen has announced that they will run two two-car teams in STCC in 2012. Team Biogas.se will run “newcomer” Jordi Gene and Johan Kristoffersson. The second team will be IPS Motorsport where Johan Stureson will run alongside Patrik Olsson.
Johan Stureson was looking to run a BMW in the new TTA championship but will now stay on in the STCC, this time in a Volkswagen Scirocco.
Dec 152011
The Volkswagen STCC team has signed experienced Spanish driver Jordi Gene for the 2012 season of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. This means he will once again battle with Rickard Rydell, who was confirmed with the rival Chevrolet team just some days ago.
Scuderia Toro Rosso has announced, slightly unexpected I must say, that they are dropping both of their Formula 1 drivers in favour of the young and upcoming drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. Ricciardo has been having dual F1 roles this season with Friday testing for Toro Rosso and racing 11 rounds for the HRT team. Vergne on the other hand finished second in the World Series by Renault and have been running Friday practices three times for Toro Rosso during the season.
This now leaves Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi out on the market.
Rickard Rydell, the 2011 STCC champion, has confirmed that he is continuing with the Chevrolet Team Sweden team in an attempt to win the championship a second time in 2012.
Rydell is the first driver to be announced for next year’s STCC season after the series split where teams and drivers destined to join the rival TTA championship.
2011 GP2 champion Romain Grosjean will race alongside Kimi Räikkönen in the Lotus (formerly Renault) team for 2012. Grosjean last raced in Formula 1 when he replaced Nelson Piquet Jr. mid-season in 2009.
With two new drivers for 2012 Lotus have now parted ways with Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna.
Sarah Fisher Racing has signed the 2011 Indy Lights champion Josef Newgarden for the 2012 IndyCar season. The 20 year old American driver moved to Indy Lights after running two seasons in Europe – finishing second in the British Formula Ford championship in 2009 and running a GP3 campaign for Carlin in 2010.
Newgarden had five wins and ten podium finishes in his debut Indy Lights season for Sam Schmidt Motorsports and clinched the title comfortably ahead of his team mate Esteban Guerrieri.
Kimi Räikkönen has signed a two-year contract with the Renault Formula 1 team (which will be named Lotus in 2012) and will return to Formula 1 after his adventures into WRC and NASCAR.
“I’m delighted to be coming back to Formula 1 after a two-year break, and I’m grateful to Lotus Renault GP for offering me this opportunity,” said Raikkonen. “My time in the World Rally Championship has been a useful stage in my career as a driver, but I can’t deny the fact that my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming.”
Read more here:
Renault confirms Kimi Raikkonen will return to Formula 1 in 2012
Spanish veteran Pedro de la Rosa has signed a two year race deal with the HRT team for the 2012 and 2013 Formula 1 World Championship seasons. After a successful junior career where he became Spanish Formula Ford champion, British and European Formula Renault champion, Japanese Formula 3 champion, Japanese GT champion and Formula Nippon champion de la Rosa joined Arrows for the 1999 and 2000 seasons. He then raced for Jaguar for two seasons before becoming test driver for McLaren in 2003. The latest jump into a race seat came in Montreal when he subbed for the injured Sergio Perez.
Pedro de la Rosa brings a lot of experience both as a F1 race driver and as a test driver, but has a huge task at his hands to make the team competitive.
Nov 212011
The 2011 DTM champion Tomas Tomczyk leaves Audi after 11 years with the manufacturer. Tomczyk has not revealed his plans for next year but rumours suggest that he is likely to end up at the newcomers BMW.