[bugagasikaga]

Been on the cards for a while, but officially confirmed now. Jerome D'Ambrosio in, Lucas di Grassi out.

Jerome D'Ambrosio has secured the second race seat at Virgin Racing for 2011, the team announced on Tuesday.

The Belgian conducted third-driver duties for the team in Friday practice sessions towards the end of last season and had been one of the favourites to race alongside Timo Glock next year.

And after weeks of negotiations, as the team weighed up other options including retaining Lucas di Grassi or signing Giedo van der Garde, Virgin has finally decided to commit to D'Ambrosio. Full story: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88740

[Buildityrit]

Well that came out of nowhere. I had an inkling but this has just confirmed it for me.

[arreskslarlig]

Great news for us Belgians !! Maybe I'll now watch F1 back :O

[Trientoriciom]

Doesn't really matter. DiGrassi did nothing to warrant staying in the seat, so he is rightfully out, but I don't expect D'Ambrosio to do any better. Maybe at least he'll bring some much needed money into this team. As much as I like the concept of Virgin Racing (or even Marussia-Virgin), and their "look", but their driver lineup has put me to sleep from the beginning, and still does after this change. It would have made more sense to put Petrov into the Marussia, and D'Ambrosio into the GeniiGP.

[Shemker394]

Doesn't really matter. DiGrassi did nothing to warrant staying in the seat, so he is rightfully out, but I don't expect D'Ambrosio to do any better. Maybe at least he'll bring some much needed money into this team. As much as I like the concept of Virgin Racing (or even Marussia-Virgin), and their "look", but their driver lineup has put me to sleep from the beginning, and still does after this change. It would have made more sense to put Petrov into the Marussia, and D'Ambrosio into the GeniiGP.

I don't know, to me Di Grassi did quite well,t the team had no reason to drop him except money....

[TepSteade]

How do we know d'Ambrosio brings money? How do we know di Grassi didn't? What are your sources of information?

[Shemker394]

How do we know d'Ambrosio brings money? How do we know di Grassi didn't? What are your sources of information?

I didn't state that Di Grassi or whoever brought/brings money. I stated that IMO there was no reason to replace him unless someone with more money was available.

[Caluabdum]

How do we know d'Ambrosio brings money? How do we know di Grassi didn't? What are your sources of information?

Its been reported all over the place that d'Ambrosio has substantial backing for F1.

Cant help feel that this is a bad decision. DAMS needed to drop him for a race and get Grosjean in to find out if their car was any good in GP2 (it was, Grosjean allmost got poll in his first GP2 drive for more than a year, about half a grid better than Jerome had been doing before that).

[DialOne]

D'Ambrosio spent most of his GP2 career with Kobayashi as his teammate - he was somewhat surprisingly often quicker and certainly crashed less than Kobayashi, but he was off his pace when it counted for the majority of the winter series.

I don't think there's any great shame in being outperformed by Grosjean last year as he is clearly a fantastic GP2 driver, but his career was really ruined by throwing him into F1 with very little practice and no support instead of properly contesting the 2009 GP2 title.

I think that I'd probably put him on par with di Grassi, possibly with di Grassi being slightly the better. It's a bit of a shame, but there have been worse decisions.

[tipokotap]

My reaction?

Meh...

[OrefZorremn]

Hmm, I think d'Ambrosio is a better driver than the GP2 results have shown, considering the circumstances and also performances against team-mates (Kobayashi and Grosjean). When Kobayashi joined F1 and impressed instantly, I immediately started wondering, whether d'Ambrosio may actually be good too, but simply the team was hopeless. D'Ambrosio also held his own against a proven GP2 front-runner Grosjean at the end of 2010.

In any case, I consider d'Ambrosio to be better than the other alleged contender for the Virgin seat - van der Garde - who has been driving for top teams and done nothing.

Cant help feel that this is a bad decision. DAMS needed to drop him for a race and get Grosjean in to find out if their car was any good in GP2 (it was, Grosjean allmost got poll in his first GP2 drive for more than a year, about half a grid better than Jerome had been doing before that).

Erm, at the end of the season the form of DAMS clearly improved, so did d'Ambrosio's results. I don't remember Grosjean getting a pole, but in that race, where he was close to the front and finished on the podium (Spa), d'Ambrosio was actually in the race lead before engine blow-up!

--

Di Grassi? His season was like I kinda expected - got beaten by Glock like in 2007 in their GP2 title battle. Overall Lucas proved himself to be a man in the same way as in GP2 - consistent, rarely makes mistakes and never really puts himself into a bad light, but... never shows anything special either. He was never going to have a fruitful career in F1, but at least he got the honour to be part of the show for a bit and make up the numbers. Better than nothing, I guess.