Lotus confirms Fairuz Fauzy to test this Friday; Maxis onboard as new sponsor

Yawn !!

tony, please. if u cant think of anything good to say, please shut ur mouth. you are there as the team principal not because of ur credential or experiences in racing. that's a fact.

the reason i've become so critical of tony is that hes always very good at adding some un-need pressures to the team. imagine, this week the team is racing on its 'home track', an additional 24 million eyes to scrutinize the team, the bashers are reading with whatever they are having right now.

and whats about whose doing the practice thing? who is supposely driving during practice? i dont know, thats why i am asking. if both racing/test drivers can do that, why not 3 of them go round the circuit?

i am asking because it seems the team giving the practice seat to a malaysian simply because its malaysian track and for reasons not associated with racing at all.

btw, for the record, he is a good driver. fullstop.

Well I have to agree with drMpower. They should stop insulting us fans. I would rather they focus on professionalism by shutting up and letting the future results do the talking. I don't mind if Tony stops talking entirely to focus all his energy away from oral exercise and into results. If they want to permanently silence critics, they can only do it with results.

Notice that we hear very little from Mike Gascoyne and thats because he's been long enough in the sport to know nothing is more important than delivering results.

Stop insulting Fairuz as well. We know he will never drive the car this season, not with Jarno and Heiki around and he personally does not need a 'consolation practice drive'. Its an insult to his ability.
He is clearly being exploited to the max for the team's PR.

I would rather he be treated with proper respect by either driving in the car or taken off the limelight and let him race another series again like Renault World Series/GP2/Indycar impress everyone there and come back for a proper drive next year with Lotus Racing.

I'm sure he would be willing to take an initial driver's pay cut just to have a proper drive. Not like he needs the money anyway. His family is loaded already :) The kid just needs a break. Then its up to him to make the best of the opportunity.

If he's smarter, go win a championship this year and talk to another F1 team for next year. Ignore Lotus. The other team will likely want him to bring in a sponsor which is fine. The Mofaz family is business savvy and connected enough inside and outside Malaysia. When he lands the drive, he should show the middle finger to Tony and co.

Agree almost 100% with drMpower and Ferrocio.

It is best to let Fairuz to drive in another series to prove his credentials, perhaps a good GP2 team or F2 (not WS by Renault though), and if there's an offer outside Lotus he should grab it.

However, the practice session is good though, just for his exposure.

Dear Mr Prime Minister 1Malaysia

The Lotus F1 has turned into a betting ground between Tony and Richard.... I dont think anyone in their right mind would be interested to see anyone of them in skirts esp Tony.

Dont make LOTUS brand a fiasco .... at the expense of the Rakyat and Proton

but i do think pressure is necessary for the team, and what tony said is true is in 3 season they are still last what the purpose of racing?

and its true that fairuz should be competing elsewhere but its still not wrong for to go testing a formula 1 car for experience purpose right? maybe in 2 or 3 he would be in the main driver line up? or if anything happen to the other 2 driver at least he would be ready to drive right?

and furthermore i do think that the team is set up by naza, tony and mofaz as naza and mofaz have a long history in motorsport.

poor fairuz...

I second urs DrMPower.

i dont know why the hell r they asking him to drive in the pract. session, i thought Heiki should have drive it as many times as possible to make sure that he's 100 ready before the race.

No doubts Fairuz is a damn good driver, and has proved himself at other series, but i dont see the rationale letting him to do the pract. session.

But i dont agree on what ur saying abt Fernandez.
The way I see it, its his money, let him do what he wants..
but he looks more like the other team principles, who talks too much.

he got credibility,he finish higher then that torro rosso driver in formula renault(Jaime Alguersuari) last year but that guy got a seat in torro rosso,all fairuz got is a almost non existence role as a test driver in a team that have doubt in him.

all the hardwork he put to prove that he deserve a driver role go un-notice,hopefully he don't give up.

its not all his money,there is naza,the gov(via proton),kamarudin meranun...and he talk to much cause he like publicity,a good luxury publicity such as being co-owner of f1 team is good for his profile,investor confidence,etc etc....see now he no longer the richard bronson of asia,he is man of his own "TONY FERNANDEZ".

From the photo, Fairuz is tall and i might add got a sizeable head

That translate to more weight.

F1 engineers spends $$$$ millions to shave of a single kg

Food for thought Lotus

Beratsangat, no food for thought required for Lotus because they have a weighing scale and they know exactly how much everything weighs. They don't have to guess and speculate from photos as what you've done.

Speed, Lotus was not set up by Mofaz. They're just in need for the ride to promote Fairuz. And Naza do not have a 'long history' in motorsport. They in fact no next to nothing about it. They're in the automotive world but not motorsport.

Agree with u Ferruccio.
Just let Tony do what ever he wanna do. Hes good in PR aswellas convincing investor,etc. which is good for the motorsports-industry and LotusF1.
As for Fairuz, i dont think its wrong for him to test the car+track, just give him some experience and exposure to F1 cars. He's just a test driver, and why do they need a test driver if they dont use them for testing, isnt it?
Anyway, Heikki and Trulli are well experienced driver and they both been into the F1 racing industry for how many years.
*Just being positive here, and not to condemn anyone.
*Hopefully they can bring up something in the future + closed up the 5secs gab soon. We will see how far they can go. peace!

'Rakyat' this..'Government' that.. Why are you guys so strongly against Lotus' move on letting Fauzy have a go at the practice session this Friday?

What's the worst that could happen?




p.s. i miss F1 during the 90's..sigh

The problem with Fairuz being a test driver within the new F1 regs where testing is so limited means that he has nothing to gain other for a bit of PR. A few years back when teams were allowed to do plenty of testing, the role of the test driver was important for the team.

Now that in season is prohibited and pre-season testing is severely limited, the team really doesn't need a test driver. Fairuz is actually redundant. It is in fact sometimes counter productive because for the Friday practice sessions, what you want is for the race day drivers to be in the car to get the most seat time and to maximize the work between the driver and his race engineer.

Honestly Fairuz has very little to 'learn' and nothing to 'show off' to try and impress the team during Friday practice.

Yes the level of competition in F1 is great and for a new main driver the Sunday race experience is good for them.

But you'd surprise how all the basics of car set up, the approach to race day, communicating with race engineers etc is no different to other types of high level single seater series like WSbR, A1GP, GP2 which Fairuz has done. He is already highly proficient for the type of Friday practice work the team requires.

I pity Fairuz actually. He's been put into the seat just for the sake of publicity. He can perform much better at other teams or series. F1 exposure is good for him but I think just 1 day of driving is not enough for him. Plus on race day is a different person driving. Fairuz's requirement for the car's settings might be different from Heikki's requirement. It would cause some conflict.

BeratSangat - Yes u r right ... he looks big for a F1 driver! Shuey is shorter in real life and very SLIM - saw him at KLCC

Ferrocin - you missing the point. nothing to do with weighing scales. Every kg less is less a PLUS point, just like exact fuel calculation into tank. Probably why Alex Yoong cant cut it ... he is too tall, big size and ..... heavy !

SANGAT GEMUK

Yup !

Horse jockeys mandatory to be small size too...

F1 should provide statitics of the drivers ..... eg 34D,26,32 !!

Sangat Gemuk,

My point is

1.Do you actually believe the team does not know precisely how much he weighs?

2.Do you actually believe it is valid to know someone's weight by looking at head height and size from press photos?

3.Do you actually believe that by looking at the photo, you know why a driver is faster or slower?

4.Do you actually believe the team does not know how weight affects performance and that they have 'missed something' and hence the remark "Food For Thought"?

Aiyar .Ferru & Gemuk

I dont think he is good enuff otherwise he racing in Bahrain and Aust

HE IS PUT there because must have at least 1 Malaysian driver... otherwise how to justify to be 1Malaysia team !!

Don't try to kid yourselves its not a political "employment" - so even if he is oversize, overweight or too slow for an F1 driver .. everyone in Lotus must shut up and close BOTH eyes.. otherwise NO SALARY

So predictable their moves ... come back Sepang must give face let him try race race ...

Never about meritocracy; but always prioritizing angkat-bodek of bigwigs attending Sepang !

This FI is so like our famous Astronaut ... sent to play CONGKAK in space !

Lets see how they qualify and you know whether I am right .... a total waste time lar !

today result

1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren, 1 minute, 34.921 seconds,
22. Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysia, Lotus, 1:40.721, 19.


6 sec slower .
Full race 56 laps = 5.6 minutes behind.

Hamilton got time to take shower and brush teeth

Suzanne,

Yet Fairuz beat Toro Rosso's Alguersuari hands down in the Renault World Series championship last year. I'm not saying Fairuz is the stuff of Schumacher and Senna but he deserves more credit.

However in the specific case of Lotus Racing, of course he will not get a chance to drive when his team mates are Heikki and Jarno. Both with plenty of F1 experience. The two are preferred just by looking at their resume.

The only way Fairuz can assert himself in the team is if he displayed above average ability like Hamilton, Schumacher, Senna when they debuted in F1. He would have to outshine Jarno and Heikki's experience to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately Fairuz as a race driver at near F1 level standards is a moderate to good driver in terms of 'ratings' It's not enough. He needs to be 'great' to be noticed. His age doesn't help his driver value too. But he is not a crappy, lousy, etc driver if anyone is trying to imply that. Neither is Alex Yoong, in reality.

a1 diablo agree with you...and nobody is upset they let fairuz(me incl)test....me im upset cause i believe fairuz deserve more.

Definitely yes!
Agree with u A1Diablo. People just love to give comments without thinking why it is happening. (the exact situation and cause).

Why is it so hard for us to support them (or others and people around us)?
Helping each other and give them support, is the mindset and mentality that we need nowdays. Always keep on being positive and not negative, which leads to..u know..

so yea..
Think twice..Act wise!

AirAsia planes coded AK

And now Maxis sponsorship

confirms Ananda is the real person behind AirAsia not Tony

Whatever dude. Do you know how the code AK was selected? Isn't that something that would be decided by a global aviation authority type like IATA etc? Do you think it's like buying a plate number?

Mathteacher says:
April 2, 2010 at 6:08 pmtoday result

1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren, 1 minute, 34.921 seconds,
22. Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysia, Lotus, 1:40.721, 19.

6 sec slower .
Full race 56 laps = 5.6 minutes behind.

Hamilton got time to take shower and brush teeth


MATHTEACHER ...YOU ARE SPOT ON !!
5 laps behind in Sepang

Tony really screwed up the 1Malaysia image

i think fairuz should leave lotus and go with the top team next year... actually ananda krishnan behind lotus racing as well he's the one that motivate tony to be clever... but unfortunately not clever enough to spot local talent what an idiot... we all piss off fairuz is not driving... . i think is insult for fairuz.. jarno bugger off fairuz get in .

I thought Richard Branson is the one that inspired Tony. Are you speculating that Ananda Krishnan is behind it just because Air Asia code is AK??

Mathteacher says:
April 2, 2010 at 6:08 pmtoday result

1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren, 1 minute, 34.921 seconds,
22. Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysia, Lotus, 1:40.721, 19.

6 sec slower .
Full race 56 laps = 5.6 minutes behind.

Hamilton got time to take shower and brush teeth


FINAL RESULT is worst....5 laps behind.... also got time go mamak shop tehtarik first ..kakaka

"i think fairuz should leave lotus and go with the top team next year"
you all think its easy to get a F1 seat?? There are other better drivers which have more sponsor money to offer.

dont you get it by now, lotus is the only way in F1 for a malaysian driver.