Frenchman Grosjean, with just 7 grands prix under his belt in 2009, is paired this year with Raikkonen, who has spent the last two seasons in the World Rally Championship.

Although they have both been away from the F1 grid for the past two seasons, it is Raikkonen who was granted an exclusive re-acclimatisation test recently, and the first two days of official testing this week at Jerez.

Grosjean, 25, insists to Le Matin newspaper: “It’s going well between us.

“It does not shock me that he began the testing for marketing reasons. He was world champion and he will also need some time to adjust to being back in the game.

“Together with Kimi, we want to do everything so that Lotus is in the best possible position on the grid and I do not intend to fuss over topics that I cannot control,” he added.

F1-Zone.net