With Kimi Raikkonen now seated firmly at Lotus Renault, the race is on to be the famous Finn’s teammate in 2012.
Vitaly Petrov has a contract that runs into next year, but the Russian admitted recently that paperwork in F1 is often meaningless.
Indeed, the Russia Today (RT) publication on Tuesday reported that Petrov’s manager, Oksana Kosachenko, is on her way to the team’s Enstone base late on Tuesday "to hold talks over (the driver’s) future with the team".
Obviously not referring to Raikkonen’s deal, which was announced two days after the 2011 season finale, team boss Eric Boullier said at Interlagos that the team will settle its driver lineup within the next fortnight.
With injured Robert Kubica out of the frame for now and reportedly unlikely to ever return with Renault, reportedly at the front of the queue now are Romain Grosjean, Bruno Senna and Adrian Sutil.
"Hopefully we will know soon and have a relaxing Christmas," Senna told Portuguese-language reporters last weekend.