Nov.27 (GMM) Boss Eric Boullier has refused to rule out signing Kimi Raikkonen to race for the team to be known as Lotus in 2012.

Earlier, the 2007 world champion was linked to Williams but it is believed the famous British team turned down his multi-million euro demands.

Now, in the Interlagos paddock, attention has turned to Renault team boss Boullier's claim last week that he has been in contact with Raikkonen's management team headed by Steve and David Robertson.

"Kimi was - or better said, is - one possible scenario," Germany's Sport1 quotes Boullier as saying, after the recovering Robert Kubica was ruled out for the start of the 2012 season.

Actually, the list is long and complicated, with the seat currently occupied by Vitaly Petrov also in doubt and Romain Grosjean considered first in line for any vacancy.

"I think the speed was there," said Boullier when asked about the new GP2 champion Grosjean's recent Friday outings, "the feedback was very good, the team enjoyed working with him. I cannot say more than this.

"It's part of the assessment we decided to go through, he did it positively and now it will be reported to the board and then we will see."

Bruno Senna is also anxiously waiting to know Renault's decision, which is now expected in the coming days.

"Hopefully I will have a relaxing Christmas," he told Portuguese language reporters after qualifying at Interlagos.

But German reports say Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen is even an option, with the Finn said to have an exit clause in the event that a bigger team offers a seat.

Likely Force India refugee Adrian Sutil is yet another candidate, with his Medion backing reportedly speaking louder than his legal trouble with Genii executive Eric Lux.

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