Team Lotus F1 has named single race winners Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen as its 2010 drivers. Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy will be the team’s third driver. The announcement was made today by Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek on behalf of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur.
Lotus will be 6th team for Jarno Trulli who spent last 5 full seasons with Toyota following his stints with Minardi (1997), Prost (1998-1999), Jordan (2000-2001) and Renault (2002-2004) where he scored his only F1 race win to date.
Heikki Kovalainen will be joining Lotus after one season with Renault and two McLaren. Same as Trulli he is coming to Lotus with one race win to his name.
Lotus F1 Team has also unveiled the new logo:
Lotus F1 Racing Logo
When describing the logo the team principal gave some hint on the colour scheme of Lotus livery:
“We have thought long and hard about our team brand and logo, and I am very pleased with the end result. F1 aficionados will immediately recognise the classic green and yellow colour of Lotus, but we have given it a modern twist which is essentially what this team is about. We are not pretending to be the Lotus of the past, but we are honoured to be able to bring the name back into Formula 1 at the start of a new decade of racing. We will draw on its heritage and use it to inspire and motivate our team, Lotus F1 Racing. I hope everybody likes the logo and enjoys a small glimpse into the livery of our race cars for our first season.“
To read the complete Q&A with Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Tony Fernandes follow this link to Lotus F1 Racing website.
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The experienced drivers are disappearing. Why are the new teams waiting? You would think it would be critical to get a driver with lots of F1 experience in a seat to develop the car.
It is easy to attract a good driver if you are a good team with solid plans and with money to pay for the driver. But it gets more difficult when you are a team that needs a driver who will bring money in (like Campos wanting de la Rosa who however has no budget to bring).
Then there is that thing about Michael Schumacher. Once his situation with Mercedes is sorted out then Nick Heidfeld can sort out his 2010 ride either with Mercedes or Sauber and Sauber can also complete their line up.
The last decent seat left would be with Renault but they won’t sign up anyobody until some decision is made on the future of the team.
This is Kovalainen’s time to shine. Trulli is pretty much the standard as far as a “normal” F1 driver goes. If he can beat Trulli, then I have hope for him. He took all but 1 mechanical dnf’s at Mclaren during his two years there. And crashed out or was more often than not slower than Hamilton, who is clearly the no. 1 guy there.
It’s amazing how people give Michael Schumacher so much gruff about how he made Ferrari his team. Yet the same thing is happening with McLaren and Hamilton, and he’s a golden boy.