|
LOTUS RACING MID-TERM REVIEW WITH TONY FERNANDES2010-07-30 19:30:52
As the Formula One World Championship approaches the Hungarian Grand Prix for the twelfth round this weekend before the 3-week break, every team have faced considerable ups and downs throughout the season following the many races held across the Asian and European circuits.
Lotus F1 Racing, one of the three new entries for the 2010 season, have had its share of good and misfortunes. The green and yellow team led by Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes have performed positively in the first half of the season, with its best ever performance at the recent German Grand Prix where Jarno Trulli (above) clocked the team’s quickest ever Q1 time, only a second off to the Toro Rosso cars of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi.
The recent British Grand Prix also marked the first anniversary of the Lotus Racing team. The Malaysian-British team has already started conceptualization and development work on the 2011 car. Fernandes has credited his technical director Mike Gascoyne and technical personnel who defied all odds to ready the team, in a span of only six months, for the start of the 2010 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix. “We’ve defied all the critics who doubted we could get our cars onto the grid in Bahrain, and we’re now comfortably the fastest of the new teams, pushing the guys ahead and already working hard on our 2011 car.”
“Our factory in the UK is now fully functional, and we have some very exciting plans for our base in Malaysia – it’s important to me and the whole team that we continue to inspire the next generation of talented people in Malaysia, Asia and throughout the world, and I think we’re already starting to do that now with the progress we’ve made in such a short time,” he added.
Fernandes is proud and remains very resilient of the team’s current season progress and 2011 objectives. The charismatic team principal is also confident that the team are on the right track to
consider a shot at scoring their first point into the second half of the season.“There have been some massive highs, and a few lows, but that’s what racing is all about – we got both cars home in Bahrain after an almighty effort by everyone in the team to get them designed and built in exactly six months. A bold strategy helped us get Heikki (Kovalainen) into Q2 in Malaysia, again exceeding expectations for a team that was still building up its infrastructure on and off track, a process that continues today and is now laying down the building blocks for future success,” he commented.
The mid-season announcement of Malaysian F1 driver Fairuz Fauzy (above right) to drive during practice sessions at Grands Prix is an initiative where Fernandes is particularly satisfied with. “Seeing Fairuz in our car in FP1 in Malaysia, Silverstone and Germany is personally very satisfying, and is proof that talent, determination and the will to succeed will overcome any pre-conceived geographical boundaries.”
Besides the strong foundation laid out within the team’s infrastructure and personnel department, Lotus Racing have secured several strategic partnerships and sponsorships since the start of the season. The team’s impressive line-up of partners and sponsors include 1Malaysia, Tune Group, AirAsia, Maxis, LR8 and Proton. New sponsors who have just joined the bandwagon over these past weeks consist;
LG, Dell, DuPont, AirAsia X and Tune Hotels.
“We’ve become a real force in commercial terms. Throughout the season we’ve been very honoured to have been able to announce partnerships with a number of blue-chip global brands; CNN, LG, DuPont Refinish, Dell, AirAsia X and Tune Hotels, to name just a few, and that shows how seriously the corporate world takes us,” Fernandes reiterated.
He added, “We could only attract companies of that calibre if we were a serious player in the global sports market, doing a professional job in the right way, and that’s obviously very satisfying – they see our potential and want to work with us as we grow and move up the grid, and that’s another very positive sign that we are making a positive impact on Formula 1, within the paddock, and amongst the fans.”
After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Fernandes and his team are expected to take a well earned break before the championship resumes at the awesome Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium for Round 13 of the championship. Following that, another 6 races see the final stint towards the season's finale in Abu Dhabi.
“I can’t wait for the rest of the season. We will come back fighting fit and ready to consolidate our position at the head of the new teams, and challenge the squads ahead for grid positions, and, ultimately, points. That’s the focus now – to continue to do the best job we can in 2010, and kick into the 2011 season with a team that has learnt a number of valuable lessons in its first year, and be challenging for points in 2011 and beyond,” he concluded.
|
Post time 27-7-2010 01:17 PM
kt hungary...
