Versatility Key For Lotus In Driver Market

[Mark H]

Lotus F1 chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne says the new team will be looking for 'versatile' drivers as it prepares to make its entry into F1 next season.

 

The team will be one of four newcomers on the grid next season along with Manor, USF1 and Meta Campos and secured the final slot on the grid for 2010 at the expense of BMW Sauber.

 

As is the case with the other new teams, Lotus has yet to confirm any drivers for next season and while Gascoyne admitted that no decisions have yet been taken on who could be at the wheel of the cars next season, he insisted that the team was monitoring the driver market to find the best possible options.

 

"We have been looking closely at the driver market to determine our best options for next year including Malaysian drivers, but no decisions have been made yet,” he said. "We need versatile drivers. We need reliable and technically-minded drivers who can help us develop the car during the season, but at the same time we need drivers who are hungry for results and who can extract every little bit of performance from the car at all times."

 

Jarno Trulli, who looks set to leave Toyota at the end of the season and has a strong past relationship with Gascoyne, is one experienced figure linked to the team while driver Fairuz Fauzy is also believed to be on the radar as a home-grown option for the Malysian owned outfit.

 

"What I can say is [that] Fairuz Fauzy is on the list," Lotus F1 team principal Tony Fernandes told Malaysian national news agency Bernama. "We will announce the line-up in November. I hope a Malaysian driver will be selected as either the second driver or third driver for the team."

 

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/153500/1/vers...ver_market.html