Posts tagged Tony Fernandes

The dark green and yellow T127 which was revealed in London on Friday night made Lotus’s return to Formula1 official.

The team is being very realistic about their goals this year and they concentrated more on the importance of a long-term return to the sport and the herritage of Lotus and the passion that the brand evokes.

They made special mention to the Chapman family who founded lotus. Hazel Chapmam, the wife of Lotus founder Colin Chapman was present at the launch, as well as their son Clive. It was mentioned that the team had their blessing and that the family fully supported the team and the move back into F1.

Mike Gascoyne has a good, strong technical team behind him, many of them are from the ex Toyota F1 team and some from the Renault team. He said that the car had a very good base to build on for the future. Hinting that they are concentrating on just finishing races and reliability this year and maybe go for some points.

“The launch of the car is a very proud moment for the design team and the whole team,” said Gascoyne. “This one is very special for me personally for two reasons. Firstly the Lotus name coming back into F1 is something very special. I grew up in Norfolk, went to school five miles down the road from the original factory. I grew up in an era when Lotus was winning races and championships, so the opportunity to work with this team is very special. But also it is the challenge of bringing a new team and a new car into F1 in such a short space of time. We have a fantastic driver line-up who have put their faith in the whole design team.”

When asked about the car and it’s prospects in 2010, he said: “I think we’ve designed a very contemporary 2010-spec car. It’s not out of date, it’s very well designed, so I’m not worried – I think we’ve got a very solid base to build on”.

“We will be a very solid professional team. We’ll score some points and we’ll spring some surprises towards the end of the year.”

Lotus also have a good driver pairing this year. They have signed Ex-Toyota driver Jarno Trulli and ex-McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen. Lotus are the only of the ‘new’ teams to have signed such experienced high-profile drivers, no doubt with the expertise of Gascoyne, this team will surely be the most successful ‘newcomer’.

The lotus name will be allowed to carry on in F1 as a historic name, which, according to Mike Gascoyne, means that a win would be counted as Lotus’s 80th in F1, not the new team’s first. This obviously is not their goal, nor their focus for 2010, but it does appear if the team can build on such a strong foundation, then an 80th win for Lotus would be sometime in the not too distant future.

A Cleary extactic Tony Fernandes summed up his feelings by simply saying “Words can’t express how I feel today.”

The team on Thursday took the car out for a very brief straight-line test. Apparently the car performed well and they gathered valuable aero data from the short run.

Tony Fernandes has a bet running with Richard Branson, if Lotus finish ahead of Virgin in the points in 2010, Branson most don’t a pair of stockings and be a stewardess for a flight on one of Tony’s airline, AirAsia. If you ask my opinion, Richard should be worried, so far it seems like a safe bet by Tony based on Virgins performance so far in pre-season testing. I guess the proof will be in the pudding, but things don’t look too bad for Lotus.

The Lotus-Cosworth will be present at next weeks tests in Jerez, with both drivers swapping driving duties over the course of the week. There might be a lot of nostalgic Formula1 fans come out of the woodwork to see the Lotus return to the track again.

It’s another good news story for Formula1 this season. It’s going to be a cracker of a season!