was the first car the team had built to run KERS.

On 17 February, the team announced that Vitaly Petrov would replace Trulli alongside Kovalainen for the 2012 season. Trulli was unsatisfied with the lack of development and he himself asked from the team if he could be replaced with another driver. Mark Smith took over pitwall operations from Group CTO Mike Gascoyne starting from the Chinese Grand Prix.