Caterham almost ready with 2013 F1 season lineup

Heikki Kovalainen driving the Caterham CT01 (2012)

Caterham is almost ready to complete its 2013 driver lineup, new team boss Cyril Abiteboul has revealed.

Having fielded Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov this year, Caterham has already announced that Frenchman Charles Pic will drive one of the green cars next season.

Finn Kovalainen’s hopes of staying in F1 are now pinned on Caterham’s plans, but the sponsored drivers Petrov, Dutchman Giedo van der Garde and Bruno Senna are reportedly all also looking to the Tony Fernandes-founded team.

“There are different options,” Abiteboul admitted to F1′s official website.

Russian Petrov’s hopes appeared to get a boost last week, when a delegation for his sponsor Russian Helicopters visited Caterham’s factory.

“One option,” Abiteboul said, “is someone who he (Pic) can learn from and who he can use as his benchmark for what we want from both our drivers.

“Another option, more radical, is to accept the fact that 2013 is a transition year that we use to continue building the team before a period of greater stability in 2014, when a lot of other things in the package will change,” he added.

“Both types of candidates are out there, and we are close to making a decision.”

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