The German driver, a Williams driver for the last four years following his championship winning season in GP2 racing, revealed he would be leaving the Grove based team a month ago. He had been assumed to be heading to the Brawn GP team before that announcement, and the exit of both Rubens Barrichello to Williams and Jenson Button to McLaren cemented that assumption.

A conference call is happening at midday today between Mercedes GP and the assembled media, where we expect the son of world champion Keke Rosberg will be confirmed as a Mercedes GP driver.

The identity of the second driver is currently unknown. Nick Heidfeld is a favourite, but the team are waiting upon a decision by Renault on their future before possibly bidding for Robert Kubica. Michael Schumacher is not believed to be in the running, despite the ongoing speculation.