The speculation over Pastor Maldonado's future came to an abrupt end this week, when the Venezuelan driver was confirmed as Romain Grosjean's teammate at Lotus. The switch had been expected and speculated about for weeks beforehand, so came as no surprise, and all involved professed to be happy with the deal.

Team principal at Lotus, Éric Boullier, explained how they intended to help Maldonado take a step forward, despite the fact they had already admitting to wanting Nico Hülkenberg instead. "It is clear that Pastor has pace and potential. We are convinced that we will be able to provide the correct environment to enable him to flourish regularly on track."

Pastor himself was thrilled, of course, having already burned his bridges with Williams. He said: "It's no secret that I have wanted a change of scene to help push on with my Formula 1 career and the Lotus F1 team offered the very best opportunity for me to be competitive next season."