At a press conference held at the KL Hilton yesterday, Lotus F1 boss Tony Fernandes confirmed that the team's test driver Fairuz Fauzy will be getting more drive time by taking over Friday's practise session in both Jarno Tulli's T127-04 and Heikki Kovolainen's T127-01 chassis at two races each.
Fairuz will be driving at Friday's practise session at this weekends British GP followed by Hungary, Singapore and the season-closing race in Abu Dhabi.
At this Friday's practise session, Fairuz will be driving an upgraded car; the last upgrades for the cars for the rest of the season.
Fairuz is understandably excited about the challenge ahead, starting with the team’s second home race at Silverstone this weekend: “First I want to thank Tony, Mike and the whole team for the chance to get back in the car. I really can’t wait to see how far we’ve moved forward since I was last out on track, and I’m very proud to have been given the chance to play another active role in our continuing development. I did the shakedown of chassis 04 at Snetterton a couple of weeks ago, but obviously couldn’t really push there, so it’ll be great to get back out and add whatever I can to help the team keep moving towards the midfield. To start out at Silverstone is going to be very special indeed – I live literally a few metres from the track, so I’ll have a lot of friends, family and fans there to cheer me and the whole team on, and it’ll be great to be among the first F1 cars to try out the new section. I’m also really looking forward to the other three races, particularly Singapore as there is a unique challenge to racing under the lights, but also because there will be a lot of fans there from Malaysia and Singapore, and it’ll be great to put on a good show for them.”
Mike Gascoyne is also looking forward to seeing Fairuz in the car: “Every time Fairuz has been out on track for us he’s done a great job, and taking part in four more races is a just reward for the contribution he’s already made to the establishment and growth of our team. It’s another chance for us to learn more about how to get the most out of him in the car, as well as providing us with another invaluable viewpoint on the characteristics of our car.”
When Zerotohundred.com questioned Fairuz on whether or not he was ready to race next year if he was given a chance to, the answer was, "yes of course, I am ready to race, I have been watching my diet and keeping my fitness in check." Watching Fairuz Fauzy take the cockpit will be a moment to proud of for all Malaysians as the team looks to bring in more Malaysians into the Formula One scene.
Currently Malaysians make up about 20% of the team with more to come as Lotus Racing is working with local Malaysian universities to identify passionate and talented individuals that can contribute to the development of the team.
Fairuz Fauzy previously drove for the A1 Team Malaysia and was runner-up at the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Mofaz Racing last year.
