Nico Hulkenberg is set to be confirmed as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement at Lotus in the next few weeks according to sources.
The German driver looked set to remain with Sauber or move back to Force India after an investment deal between Lotus and Quantum Motorsports looked unlikely.
That deal has however been signed – though it’s yet to be officially announced – which means Lotus now have the funds available to sign Hulkenberg.
The Enstone team had lined Pastor Maldonado up as a contingency should the investment deal collapse because the Venezuelan brings significant backing with him from personal sponsor PDVSA.
Now that Quantum have taken a 35 per cent stake in the team for an undisclosed but significant sum of money, the team has the funds to sign the Sauber driver and Quantum chairman Mansoor Ijaz has urged them to do exactly that.
“I can tell you the [Hulkenberg] contract is prepared and ready to go,” he told Autosport.
“I know Nico is excited about doing this and I think it is a matter of a very short period before that is all finalised.”
It’s expected that Lotus will announce the Quantum deal in the next few days before confirming its line-up of Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean for 2014 a few days later.
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