Russian Formula One driver Vitaly Petrov is an “incredibly good” signing for the Caterham team and hungry for success, team owner Tony Fernandes said Thursday.
Petrov edged out veteran Italian driver Jarno Trulli to take a seat at Caterham after he was dropped by Lotus Renault following his tenth place finish in the 2011 championship.
“Vitaly has proven to be an incredibly good acquisition for the team. He is quick, he is talented and he has settled in immediately,” Fernandes said on the official F1 website.
“He is hungry, he is very eager to keep proving he has the talent to mix it at the top and he has a great sense of humor.”
Trulli, 37, helped Team Lotus, as Caterham was then known, to establish itself in the sport, but was no longer at his best, Fernandes suggested.
“He would be the first to say he was probably coming to the end of his time in F1,” Fernandes said.
“He had a long and very successful career, and we are very thankful we were able to work with him for our first two years. But we wanted to bring in some new talent.”
Petrov is Russia’s only F1 driver and achieved his best result with third at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.
He failed to finish for Caterham in the 2012 season opener in Australia after a steering problem, but finished 16th in Malaysia on Sunday after battling with the faster cars of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button.
