PETALING JAYA: It will be a grand day for Malaysia at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London this afternoon when the Lotus F1 Racing car is officially unveiled to the world. The weather is freezing cold in the city but the Malaysian management team involved in reviving the historic British legend will be glowing with warm pride as the covers are lifted off the car to reveal the livery in full view.Air Asia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes got associated with F1 through the sponsorship of the Williams team and has now thrown his all into the current project in partnership with Proton, the owners of Lotus. His vision was to revitalize Lotus and to show that Proton can be world-class apart from helping to project a bigger Malaysian presence at the highest level of motorsport when the venture into F1 was officially announced on Sept 15 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Meeting the challenge of building the first Lotus car in 16 years seems so far away, especially with the March deadline of the season-opening race in Bahrain. But rest assured that with the launch in place, Malaysians can look with pride as the Lotus cars line up on the grid in Bahrain with the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW, Renault and McLaren.
The new car, which was assembled with loving care at the Lotus plant in Norfolk, is expected to adopt the famous green and yellow British racing colours.
And chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne, the man in charge of the project, admitted that the challenge of making Lotus competitive in their return to F1 is something he holds close to his heart.
“The launch will be a big day for your country and for us, the folks at Norfolk. I’m a Norfolk boy myself and to bring the Lotus name back in is something special,” said Gascoyne, who was given full freedom in the design of the car right from the start.
Malaysian reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy gave the car its first on-track debut in a private shakedown at Silverstone on Tuesday, three days after the engine was fired up at the Lotus plant
Fairuz will be sharing the centre stage at the launch today with Heikki Kovalainen, the former team-mate of Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, and long-time Toyota driver Jarno Trulli.
Alex Yoong, the last Malaysian to drive a F1 car in 2002, said that it would be a huge step forward for the country.
“It’s no longer a small influence as we have a F1 team with Malaysians in the upper level of management,” said Alex, who was recently appointed as the head of the driver development programme in Asia for the team.
“They are doing everything right and spending money in the right places. But it is a tough business in F1 and we need to have realistic expectations in the first season.”
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