Bernie Ecclestone is keen to see Vitaly Petrov remain in Formula 1, despite having been dropped by Lotus, formerly Renault, his manager told RIA Novosti on Monday.
Petrov, the only Russian F1 driver, is without a seat for 2012 after Lotus hired Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean to fill their seats. All but one seat has been confirmed on the 24 car grid, that of the second seat alongside Pedro de la Rosa at HRT.
Petrov isn’t expected to join HRT, but has been linked with Jarno Trulli’s seat at Caterham, which many believe to be an almost done deal with the former Team Lotus outfit negotiating a fee to break Trulli’s contract.
The deal is likely to have the support of Ecclestone, who is keen to see the Russian remain in F1 until at least 2014 when the inaugural Russian GP takes place in Sochi.
“As soon as it became clear that we could stay with Lotus Renault, I spoke with Bernie,” Petrov’s manager, Oksana Kosachenko, said.
“He expressed his support and tried to talk with the teams,” she added. “The teams are, however, completely independent from Bernie Ecclestone, so he can’t influence their decisions in any way, unfortunately.”
Despite the aforementioned Caterham rumours, Kosachenko is adamant that a deal hasn’t been done, but fell short of denying such a scenario could become a reality.
