Formula One: Lotus Soon To Announce Their Drivers For The 2011 Season
The contract of the current Lotus drivers would end up this season. It had been announced by the team that they will soon announce the names of the drivers that they plan to move along with for the upcoming season.
Mike Gascoyne, the designer of various Formula One cars and the Chief Technical Officer of the new Lotus F1 Racing told the media that very soon the 2011 driver line-up will be brought forward.
For Lotus, this is their first season in the race after they occupied the space left by BMW, as it quit the Formula one calendar this season. The Malaysian team apparently seems pleased with its current drivers but still the final announcement is yet to be made. There are speculations that the Malaysian-owned team is to get closer ties with the Kuala Lumpur born driver Fairuz Fauzy, for a race seat in the upcoming season. Fauzy is currently signed with the team as a test driver.
In a recent interview to the media the team's technical boss Gascoyne, said he is happy with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, the current team drivers and he thinks that the team would like to continue with them. However, he added that the matter is still under consideration and discussions are being carried on among the team officials as well as with the drivers to settle things soon.
He told that the team’s first priority is to stick with the current drivers but still he would want to wait till the final official confirmation is given which he thinks would be given pretty soon.
In the past half of the season, a lot of analysts have questioned the form of the Italian veteran, Trulli, but Gascoyne defended him saying that it is only a matter appalling luck and reliability; he hopes that very soon Trulli would be able to perform much better. Truilli, who turned 36 this Tuesday, had retired four races this season and his best finish so far had been at fifteenth place earlier this year in Monaco. With not being able to bag a single point the entire year, he stands at twenty second position of the drivers’ Championship.
On the other hand, Heikki had been able to perform better during the first half of the season. Gascoyne commented on his performance saying that he had been able to go better and better all through the season. He added that he had been able to gain confidence and now he is trying to push Trulli as well.
However, Heikki had also not been able to grab any points so far this season but he had been able to portray a better racing talent at the track than his teammate and had been able to finally reach at nineteenth place on the charts.
Gascoyne concluded that he is satisfied with both the drivers and for Truilli he thinks that as the team would keep improving the car he would also be able to perform better. He said that it was always like this with experienced guys, if they are given the car, they can perform with it.
So far, the team stands at tenth place in the Constrictors’ Championship with only HRT and Virgin following them, but they seem satisfied saying that it is not bad for the first season of the team.
Moreover, the team claimed that they do not separate this new team, ‘Lotus Racing’ from the old ‘Team Lotus’ though they hardly share anything more than the name. Still they suggested that any success that they would be able to bag would not be their first success but another addition to the long list of the old Lotus team. Well, with that all the fans of Lotus hope to see the team prosper and gain success just as the old Lotus team had once been able to.
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