Despite having apparently been in contention for a number of F1 vacancies over the winter, Luiz Razia's grand prix dream appears on the verge of being shattered by the fickle hand of finance.
The Brazilian was named as team-mate to Max Chilton in the Marussia squad during the
Jerez group test, and got two days of running in southern Spain, but has so far failed to appear at either subsequent Barcelona session, casting doubt on whether he will be in the #22 car come the opening grand prix in Melbourne later this month.
Should Razia be unable to produce the sponsorship that was promised to get him the Marussia ride, it opens up the question of possible replacements. As usual, any list of candidates would contain some familiar names, including those casting around for previous openings and others hoping for their big break.
Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov and
Kamui Kobayashi were both unfortunate to lose their places on the grid for 2013 after being outbid by better-financed rivals, while
Jaime Alguersuari has been looking for a way back in since being dumped by
Red Bull at the end of 2011. Jules Bianchi is again a free agent after being passed over by
Force India in favour of Adrian Sutil, while both Jerome d'Ambrosio and
Timo Glock are former Marussia pilots, although the German appears very content with his switch to the
DTM with BMW.
But who do you think will be lining up alongside Chilton on the weekend of 17 March? Cast your vote from the list
here, and feel free to explain your thinking in the comments section below...