Barrichello hints at Williams deal

Rubens Barrichello has hinted that he will be remaining with the Williams Team for the 2012 Formula One season.

The veteran Brazilian driver who would be participating in his 20th season in the sport, had gone into the winter season uncertain over his future after the Williams team confirmed that Pastor Maldonado would be returning, but failed to confirm who his team-mate would be.

Kimi Raikkonen had been linked with Williams during the 2011 season, until the 2007 F1 title holder announced a deal with Lotus [Renault].

Then following Force India's announcement to hand drives to Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, it was expected that Adrian Sutil would be in-contention for the seat.

Bruno Senna has also been linked with a switch to Williams after he and former team-mate Vitaly Petrov had lost their drives at Lotus [Renault], following the announcement that Romain Grosjean will join up with Kimi Raikkonen at the new-look team.

But despite all the speculation in the media, 39-year-old Barrichello is confident he will be selected for the team and has said via Twitter: 'Just came back from England...now some holidays...and waiting for good news from Williams'.

Once Williams confirm their driver line-up for 2012 there will officially only be one seat remaining with HRT for next season, however there are already rumours surfacing that Formula One might yet have a winter of musical chairs.

Despite Caterham [Team Lotus] officially naming Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen as their drivers, former Formula One driver and pundit Martin Brundle believes that the team would favour a move for Vitaly Petrov who lost his seat with Lotus [Renault]. If this proves true then it is likely that Jarno Trulli could be dumped from the team, as he has underperformed in comparison to team-mate Heikki Kovalainen: 'Suspect Vitaly Petrov may re-emerge at Caterham F1 (formerly Team Lotus) in 2012. Music has stopped, there'll be a mad scramble for seats.'