Lotus wants experienced drivers; has contacted JV
November 5, 2009 by SJ Skid
Filed under People & Events, SJ Skid
Calling itself the best of the new teams, the new Lotus F1 outfit is intent on signing two experienced drivers — and to do so by the end of the month — in the hope of being among the “bottom of the established teams” in 2010.
At least, so says Lotus chief Mike Gasgoyne and Autosport.
Jarno Trulli is the team’s top choice — and given Toyota’s pull-out, it seems a pretty strong inevitability that Trulli will end up there — but it also has contact former champ Jacques Villeneuve and Christian Klien. Both of those drivers were seen with Lotus people at Abu Dhabi.
Here’s more:
“We are looking for two drivers with experience,” [Gasgoyne] told AUTOSPORT. “We are not looking for pay drivers or new drivers. We think that is very important for the team.
“What is becoming clear to every one of the new teams is that we have gone from last to first of the new teams very rapidly. We are being seen as a serious entity. We have got quite a lot of interest, but we want two experienced drivers there.”
When asked about Trulli being top of his list, Gascoyne said: “He is one of the guys we would like to have. Jarno has, over one lap, always been sensational. That is even more important in a new team because you need to know where you are on a Saturday. Jarno can always give you that.”
[snip]
“We hope by the end of November,” he said. “We don’t want to be hanging around, we want to be proactive in what we are doing, rather than reactive. That is something we want to tie up pretty soon.”
Gascoyne says that the design of the 2010 car is on schedule, with a first shakedown scheduled for February.
When asked if he felt his early ambition to be best of the new teams was still on track, he said: “I think that is not our target any more.
“That is a given, and now we are aiming at the bottom of the established teams. We want to be as close as possible to them,” he added.
Hey, if they are aiming for the bottom of the established teams, maybe “stealing” [allegedly!!] Force India’s designs makes more sense.
The team could do worse than a Trulli/Klien pairing, though, couldn’t they? I had heard Anthony Davidson’s name attached to Lotus, so I do have to admit I’m a bit disappointed he appears to be off their radar.
Is there a better line-up for Lotus? And is Gasgoyne being a little too big for his britches?
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I get the feeling that AntD might be negotiating a contract with Brawn.
He and Button do go way back.
AntD is second example of how good PR is of great importance in F1. The Guy did loads of testing, didn’t exactly set world on Fire in the limited number of races he did for BAR/Aguri. Only one of the races he did for Aguri he did better than Sato. But Sato did farely well for the equipment he was driving and the limited resources of the car. And 2007 season where they were driving year old Honda Sato was definitely better.
AntD and all the amazing talks about his Amazing driving skills is just another of those British Media spins like one driver with “Smooth driving style” who waited for the team to spoon feed him with Best car on the grid to inherit a WDC otherwise just circulated around the track waiting for checkered flag or DNF whichever happened earlier
Having said that AntD is doing good job on Radio ( albeit with slight case of Nationality jaundice) and let him be there.
I think Gascoyne has walked the talk.
Lets look at the intersting aspect now, What If Lotus hire Trulli and Foce India retain Sutil…Fireworks,these two will have best fights f1 has ever witnessed, the teams have already established somewhat of a rivalry between them even before the seaon starts. We are going to have these two teams fighting each other regularly in the mid-field next year and of course Gascoyne would like to have his sweet revenge on Vijay Mallya. Then there is the Airliner thing…Kingfisher and AirAsia….two asian countries with established interests….and so on.
Juicy. Surely then Bernie will make this happen. I’ll watch.
SJ, can you score an interview with any of these guys. That would be cool man. I want you to ask the Fif1 question.
What about Trulli/Hedifeld seems logical to me to put two guys inthe car that have experience with the 2009 car why bother with JV or Klein who have done nothing for some time. Heikki would even be a better choice than JV