Fairuz Fauzy Gets Behind the Wheel for Hockenheim
The Lotus team confirmed Monday that test driver Fairuz Fauzy will be back behind the wheel for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
Fauzy’s run at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix was cut short after mechanical problems prevented the Malazian born driver from continuing. He has only been confirmed for the British, Hungarian, Singapor and Abu Dhabi Grand’s.
Team principal Tony Fernandes was happy to have Fauzy’s car back up and working.
“It’s an exciting day for all of us in the Lotus Racing team - being able to tell Fairuz he has another Friday run a week before he thought he’d be back in the car is a great way to start the week, and we all know he’ll deliver for us, both on track and in the feedback he’ll provide the team... He’s an inspiration to young drivers around the world, proving that being determined to make your dreams come true can make very exciting things happen!" said Fernandes.
Fauzy was a test driver for Spyker back in 2007 and has since competed in the GP2 series, the World Series by Renault, and in the A1GP Championship. Fauzy was part of the practice session at Sepang before the Malaysian Grand Prix in April.
Fauzy began his racing career competing in karting events in 1994. He made his move to British Formula Ford in 1999, and after one year, moved to British Formula Renault. He perfected his skills with the Renault family, and then moved up to the British Formula Three division in 2002, though he was only in the B-Class.
It took the Kuala Lumpur native another year before he was good enough to move up to the Formula Three main class, where he drove for SYR and Promatecme. He switched teams again driving for Menu and P1 in 2004 before trying his luck in the GP2 Series in 2005. It was here that Fauzy got the unfortunate call as the only driver to start every race, but not to have a single point, something he carried with him into the 2006 Series, again not scoring any points. Fauzy was one of several Asian drivers in the championship, and also drove for the A1 Team Malaysia, along with Alex Yoong, in the A1 Grand Prix series.
Fauzy got to test drive for Formula One with Spyker and earned the reserve driver position in 2007. The same year, he race in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the Cram Competition team.
In 2008, Fauzy was back with the GP2 competition, where he drove for Super Nova in the Asian Series. Fauzy currently drives for Mofaz Racing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and is currently sitting as runner-up in the standings behind Bertrand Baguette.
Fauzy didn’t get his big break until this year when he was tipped for the Lotus Formula One reserve seat. Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer, confirmed in November of 2009 that Fauzy would be joining the team as the text driver, but didn’t comment on whether he would be given a race seat.
Fauzy substituted for Heikki Kovalainen at the 2010 Malaysia Grand Prix practice sessions after Kovalainen lost a coin toss with Jarno Trulli. Fauzy set the 22nd fastest time after 19 practice laps, beating out Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna of Hispania Racing. Trulli had his turn sitting out at the British Grand Prix practice sessions, where Fauzy set the 23rd fastest time, once again ahead of Hispania Racing, this time beating Sakon Yamamoto with a time of 1:39:510.
"First I want to thank Lotus for the chance to get back in the car," said Fauzy. "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."
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