The all-new Malaysian 'Lotus' team will thrillingly lend it's as-yet unseen 2010 car livery to a World Series by Renault team next season, and allow their test and reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy to actually do some driving at the same time.
The team will join forces with the potentially-average 'MoFaz Racing' for next season, the team that Fauzy raced for in WSR last season, and will rename the team as the catchily-titled 'Lotus F1 Racing Junior Team' from 2010.
Fauzy will remain with the team while also working as the Lotus test and reserve driver with the two race drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli.
The move, which will see the two MoFaz cars share the same livery as the Lotus F1 car, echoes a recent move by Renault to establish close ties with the DAMS GP2 team.
Meanwhile, Heikki Kovalainen has said that he is looking forward to racing under the Lotus name for 2010, the first time a Lotus-branded team will have entered F1 since 1994. The team has no real links with the old team, but Kovalainen says that there will be pressure from the name anyway.
"Of course the team will have a lot to do to keep the name going like it has gone in the past," the foreheaded Finn told ITV's F1 website.
"Obviously the first year will be tough for us, especially at the beginning as we are quite late [starting], but I think we have all the potential to become successful like Lotus has been in the past and we are working towards that. That’s the challenge for us."
The Lotus car, which is set to be unveiled before the start of the second pre-season Jerez test on February 17th, says that the target for the season should be to become competitive, and that treating the first year as an extended test session will not be a good thing.
"Rather than just putting the mileage on the car I think we need to set a decent goal, a more realistic target after a couple of tests and just before the first race," he rambled, "If we just go out there and do the races as tests it’s very easy for everybody to relax and not to be 100% motivated.
"I’d like to be able to fight for points towards the end of the season but that might be totally unrealistic if the car is nowhere at the beginning – it’s just so hard to say."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
