Rumors about former Lotus driver Vitaly Petrov becoming the new test driver for Pirelli, which were spread the past couple of days, were confirmed to be untrue by Pirelli’s Director of Motorsport Paul Hembery.
A fan asked him about the verity of this rumor through Twitter to which Hembery replied: “Is Vitaly confirmed as a reserve driver for Pirelli until March 2012? No.”
“Just to clarify Vitaly is here as a guest, we do not have a test car never mind talking test drivers. So no truth in rumors.”
Petrov is left without a race seat now that Kimi Räikkönen returned to Formula 1 and will partner Romain Grosjean at Lotus. He also failed to land on one of the remaining seats with Williams, which only left him with the choice for HRT.
However, his manager Oksana Kosachenko stated that there was a second option; to test drive for Pirelli. At the launch of Pirelli’s 2012 Formula 1 tires in Abu Dhabi, she said: “The cooperation between Vitaly and Pirelli will continue in March, when he will take part in a major Pirelli event in St. Petersburg.” These rumors have now been stated to be false.
This leaves Petrov’s future very uncertain. He said to be hoping to land a Formula 1 seat last-minute, since he believes that it would be very hard to find a seat in 2013 after a year of absence.
New rumors state that he might replace Jarno Trulli at Caterham, even though the Italian still has a one-year contract running. Time will tell whether these are true or false.
Also read: Petrov set to become Pirelli test driver
Like us on facebook.com/gpnow.
Have your say! Leave us a comment!
