French rising star Charles Pic has swapped the red and black of Marussia for the green and yellow of Caterham for his second season in motorsport's top flight.
To some the switch came as a surprise but Pic, who brings a sponsorship budget with him, had quietly performed with increasing promise alongside the vastly more experienced Timo Glock during 2012.
While Caterham themselves were undoubtedly on the look-out for drivers with some financial backing, Marussia's rivals were nonetheless convinced by the 23-year-old's abilities and signed him to what was described as a "multi-year" deal from 2013.
Pic arrived in Formula 1 on the back of some good performances in the GP2 Series and the 2011 Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi.
Born in Montelimar, France, he started his motorsport career in karting in 2002 before stepping up to single seaters in 2006 to drive in the Formula Renault Campus category.
After stints in the Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 and the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Pic signed to drive in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2008 and finished sixth overall with victories at Circuit de Monaco and at Le Mans.
He also spent 2009 in the series, securing third place in the standings courtesy of wins at Silverstone and the Nurburgring.
Pic moved onto the GP2 Asia Series for the 2009-10 season before progressing to main series in 2010 with Arden International. He announced himself by winning at the Circuit de Catalunya in the season-opener, but that was as good as it got as he finished 10th in the standings with 28 points.
A move to Barwa Addax Team in 2011 saw him claim his second main series win at Catalunya while he also won the Monaco sprint race. He finished the season fourth in the standings with 52 points and earned a Young Driver Test role with the then Virgin Racing team in Abu Dhabi.
Team boss John Booth clearly liked what he saw and he was confirmed as Glock's third rookie partner in as many years for 2012.
Although a failed crash test on Marussia's 2012 car in the early weeks of pre-season meant Pic wasn't able to take part in any of the official tests, he did get some mileage under his belt during some promotional runs at Silverstone and performed credibly on his Melbourne debut, outqualifying the two HRTs and being classified 15th in the race after an oil problem struck.
A succession of technical DNFs in the early months of the campaign clouded his race results but Pic outqualified Glock for the first time in Bahrain and then Spain, and then beat him on the road on Sunday in Germany and Hungary.
Come the season finale in Brazil and it was the Frenchman who nearly secured tenth place for Marussia in the Constructors' Championship at the expense of the team he just days before had announced he was joining for 2013, Caterham, only for Vitaly Petrov to pass him late on.
Having moved one place up the grid for the new season, Pic will now hope it's the back of the midfield, rather than his old team, he's fighting with most often this year.
