The world-championship-winning Formula One Team of Lotus Renault GP (LRGP) made a historic visit to PROTON headquarters in Shah Alam, giving the F1 team an insight into the Malaysian car manufacturing industry. The LRGP entourage was led by none other than Managing Director and Team Principal Eric Boullier, who was joined by key members of his management team.
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Abu Dhabi, U.A.E 14th November 2010
Lotus Racing secured its primary goal of tenth place in the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship when Heikki Kovalainen finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 17th place. Jarno Trulli’s race came to an unfortunate end on lap 51 and finished in the garage after his car suffered a rear wing failure with just three laps left.
Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-03) 17th, fastest lap 1.45.378: “What a fantastic end to our season. The race itself was just great, right from when the lights went out. I got the best start of the season, made up places immediately and from that point on I just got my head down and got on with it. Everything went perfectly according to plan. The tyres weren’t really degarding and as the car got lighter and the fuel burnt away I was able to keep putting in what felt like qualifying laps throughout the whole race. I was able to pull away a gap to the cars behind me and we managed the traffic really well all race. After I came out of the pits I had to let a few cars past which cost me several seconds, but that wasn’t a problem as I could keep pulling away from my direct rivals. This is the perfect way to end our first season, and gives us a huge boost for next year. We finished on a high, achieved all our goals and we have a very exciting future ahead of us. Thank you to the whole team for a fantastic season – I can’t wait for next year.”
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Yeongam, Korea 24th October 2010
An historic race in Korea came to an end in the dark with Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen taking advantage of an incident packed race to finish in 13th place. Team mate Jarno Trulli’s race again came to an early conclusion with hydraulic issues on lap 25, but the team now head to Brazil still at the head of the new teams after some excellent work on and off track all weekend.
Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-03) 13th, fastest lap 1.55.018 – lap 43: “It was another excellent result for the team today. In tricky conditions like that with people making mistakes, we could have seen our tenth position under threat, but we were there at the end and that is what counts. I really enjoyed the race, and didn’t really have any problems that we couldn’t deal with – the team made the right calls throughout and that put us in a strong position at the end of the race. It was obviously pretty dark when we finished, but that was the same for everyone. Now we head to Brazil and we have two more races to secure our place as the best of the new teams this year.”
Yeongam, Korea 22nd October 2010
Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen officially christened the Yeongam Circuit in Korea when he was the first car on track in today’s FP1 at the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. A good day on track for the Anglo-Malaysian team saw Heikki and Jarno Trulli finish 19th and 20th respectively, top of the new team charts having completed a total of 81 laps between them.
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Hingham, UK 15th October 2010
Next stop South Korea. Marking another first in F1™ history, the 2010 Championship now moves to the brand new Yeongam circuit for round 17 of the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship. Lotus Racing head to the recently finished track in buoyant mood, having recorded their best ever finish at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix when Heikki Kovalainen brought his T127 home 12th, with teammate Jarno Trulli just behind in 13th.
Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-03): “I left Suzuka on Monday morning still buzzing after such a great race. I said then that the car was just fantastic to drive, and all drivers pray for days like that – it meant so much to the whole team, and our fans, for us to go one better than we did in Australia. That sort of result gives us a huge boost as the season draws towards the end, particularly because we were so far ahead of both Virgins – while they have kept updating their car at each race, we’ve been working on 2011 and haven’t updated our car since Silverstone, so to stay that far ahead is a major result.
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Lotus Racing‘s Jarno Trulli talks about Suzuka, home of the Japanese Grand Prix, his fans, how he prepares for the circuit and why he always looks forward to this race.
Also check out the preview of the Suzuka circuit, courtesy of MotorsTV.
Heikki Kovalainen describes the challenges and preparation a driver must go through at this famous night race in Singapore. Heikki tells us about keeping his body and mind on European time, how he prepares ahead of the race and what it feels like for the drivers flying around this bumpy track.
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LONDON: Malaysian Nabil Jeffri became Formula One’s youngest test driver at the age of 16 on Wednesday, after being driven to the track by his proud father.
Nabil, still too young to take a driving test in Britain or drive on public roads, conducted a day of straight line aerodynamic testing for F1 newcomers Lotus on an airfield runway in Duxford, eastern England.
The Malaysian-owned team’s regular race driver Heikki Kovalainen and Malaysian reserve Fairuz Fauzy were also present to advise the teenager.
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The Satria Neo Cup car as it was previously known is now called the Satria R3 Neo Clubsport. This one was caught powering its way on Sepang F1 circuit tarmac at a recent track day.
Image source: Terato.com