Romain Grosjean hints at a January launch for the next Lotus F1 challenger as he looks ahead to a cleaner 2013 campaign.

Romain Grosjean has revealed that he and Lotus team-mate Kimi Raikkonen will get an equal crack at developing the Enstone team's new F1 contender once pre-season testing gets underway next month.

Inadvertently confirming that Lotus will likely unveil the car before the end of January, the Frenchman admitted that he was looking forward to getting a head start on what could be a crucial campaign after the criticism he attracted in 2012. Three four-day test sessions are slated for Jerez and Barcelona before the first race in Australia, beginning at the start of February.

“The next few weeks for me will be intense training, with the presentation of the new car at the end of the month,” the 26-year old told French sports programme Stade2, “Then I will have six days of testing in February [before] the beginning of the season in March.”