The driver slots for 2011 are almost filled with the announcement Romain Grosjean will be Renault's third driver in 2011.
Grosjean, 24, made his F1 race debut with Renault in 2009 after Nelson Piquet was dropped, but he was not retained for last year. His signing comes in the wake of strong rumours the Proton-linked Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy had been signed as the team's reserve driver.
"2011 will be my comeback year with a third driver spot at Lotus Renault and a whole season in GP2 and GP2 Asia with the DAMS team," Grosjean said. "To be third pilot ... allows me to gain a huge amount of experience, to be in the paddock, to see people, and to understand what I was lacking in my first Formula One experience. Now my idea is to be a race driver in 2012."
In seven starts in 2009 Grosjean's best finish was 13th, and he admitted the opportunity probably came too soon. "In motor sport you always need to be in the right place at the right time. When I got to Renault, this was certainly not the case. From a performance side, I was never ashamed of what I was able to do compared to [team-mate] Fernando Alonso.
"It is true that we were far apart on the grid, but when you're two or three tenths behind him in qualifying and the race, you can't say it was so bad."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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