Three-time Le Mans winner André Lotterer will make his Formula 1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix in place of Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham confirm.
The news has come after strong rumours stating that Kobayashi was unlikely to see out the remainder of the season and Lotterer was poised to take over from the Japanese driver, although it’s understood that the alteration in driver pairing is solely for Spa so far.
Team principal Christian Albers expressed earlier in the season, after the reins in Caterham ownership changed hands, that the team were open to a shake-up in their driver lineup mid-season in an attempt to rescue their season and finish 10th in the constructors championship.
Reasons for dropping Kobayashi could be emphasised more on Caterham’s change in ownership and financial backing needed, with Kobayashi widely-known to have secured a F1 seat partly due to fundraising money from fans while team-mate Marcus Ericsson has money brought in from various sponsorship deals.
The 32-year old come with sufficient experience in racing in single-seaters, currently contesting his 12th season in Super Formula in conjunction with his successful sportscar racing activity in Le Mans and WEC, as well as having raced in a round of the CART (now Indycar) series back in 2002.
Lotterer’s success in his racing career includes taking the Le Mans crown back-to-back in 2011 and 2012 along with another in this year’s edition, with the most significant success in single-seaters stemming from titles in Formula BMW in 1997 and 1998 plus the sole title in Super Formula (then Formula Nippon) in the 2011 campaign.
