Forumla 1: Six teams stalling over drivers for next year

Published on 30/11/2010 19:06

The FIA's official entry list for the 2011 Formula 1 season has revealed six teams are still to confirm their full driver line-ups.

The list published yesterday confirms for the first time that Lotus - who have been renamed Team Lotus - will retain current drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen.

Lotus join Red Bull, who have world champion Sebastian Vettel in place, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes in naming an unchanged driver pairing, while Sauber were the only other team to name both drivers - with F1 new boy Sergio Perez confirmed alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

Vitaly Petrov's future at Renault remains uncertain with the Russian absent from the list, although Robert Kubica is confirmed at the Enstone-based team.

Rubens Barrichello's team-mate at Williams is also unconfirmed, with the team having already revealed that Nico Hulkenberg would not be retained.

Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi were absent after Force India confirmed neither driver. That leaves the door open for Bathgate's Paul di Resta to be named. Di Resta, who impressed as test and reserve driver with Force India thoughout the past season, is hotly expected to be confirmed on the team.

No drivers were listed alongside Toro Rosso despite the team previously indicating both Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari would be retained.

Virgin and Hispania also have question marks over both their drivers for next season, although Virgin are widely expected to retain Germany's Timo Glock.

Lewis Hamilton teams up with Jenson Button again for McLaren. Hamilton tried out the team's 2011 car in a simulator at the start of the week and yesterday told his Twitter followers: "Lots of neat ideas and improvements. First time driving the new car and I was happy."