Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy may join the 1Malaysia F1 Team, Tony Fernandes’ team principal role to last till early next year
Fairuz Fauzy in his Fortec Motorsport racer in the 2008 World Series by Renault.
Right after the recent and sudden announcement of the 1Malaysia F1 Team / Team Lotus (to be honest, we don’t know which is which), the next important issue is the driver line-up. Usually, when a new team comes about, the pairing of drivers would be usually made up by a young driver and someone who has more experience under his belt. This was evident in Red Bull (with David Coulthard) and the Force India squad (with Giancarlo Fisichella).
Tony Fernandes, current team principal of the team that has backing from Fernandes’ Tune Group and the Malaysian Goverment (via Proton) revealed to Reuters, “My personal preference would be to try to get someone with lots of experience, even though he may be ending his career, who can add a lot of experience and develop the car.”
The above mentioned spot can go to anyone who has the right experience, and Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy is rumored to fill in the other spot. Fauzy is currently competing in the World Series by Renault, and also had a stint in GP2 and is racing for A1 Team Malaysia. He was also the reserve and test driver for the Spyker F1 team. However, the official and confirmed line-up is expected to be announced by the end of October.
In another development, Tony Fernandes has announced that his role as team principal will be a temporary one, and that he plans to find a replacement by the second race of the 2010 season, which will be held in Australia. He told Reuters, “Team Principal is not something that is going to be permanent. I am going to get it to a stage and then someone can do it full-time, properly. My job is AirAsia and I just want to make sure that we have the right direction, the right imaging and the right future – the right strategic plan and marketing.”
“I would say probably we would buy in experience; I think it would be good that the Team Principal is Malaysian but it might be a tall order to be a Team Principal straight away,” he added.
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Congratulations to Malaysian for joining the elite club of formula 1. Whatever you call it whether 1 Malaysia F1 team or Team Lotus, it’s still be considered as Malaysian team. It is widely known that Lotus is now owned by Malaysia’s Proton.