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Saturday November 7, 2009

Fairuz set to be a reserve driver, says Gascoyne

SUBANG JAYA: Lotus F1 Racing team chief technical officer Michael Gascoyne confirmed, well almost, the obvious when he said that Fairuz Fauzy “is 99.9%” in the team.

However, Gascoyne who has worked with McLaren, Sauber, Renault and Toyota, said Fairuz would not necessarily get a race seat when the 2010 season starts in Bahrain in March.

“Fairuz will be in the team probably as a reserve driver or a test driver. He has the talent but we don’t want him to ‘crash and burn’ in the race because of his inexperience,” said Gascoyne.

The 27-year-old Fairuz finished second in the Formula 3.5 World Series by Renault. He also had a stint in GP2 and raced for A1 Team Malaysia. His previous involvement with a Formula One team was as a test driver for team Spyker F1 in 2007.

“Take (Fernando) Alonso for example. He was signed as a test driver and didn’t get a race seat until after three years with Renault and he went on to win trophies,” said Gascoyne.

“This is exactly what we want with Fairuz, for him to have enough experience because racing in the Formula One is at a much higher level than he used to.”

Gascoyne said there was no point having a Malaysian driver in the team “and always at the back of the starting grid.

“If you ask any young driver if they’re ready for Formula One, their answer will be ‘yes’. But at the end of the day, it’s experience that matters when racing in Formula One,” said Gascoyne.

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