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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's recently announced Lotus F1 team has signed up two seasoned drivers, Italian Jarno Trulli and Finn Heikki Kovalainen.
Team principal, Tony Fernandes, said the team is now one step closer to realising its dream of becoming the best new team in the 2010 formula one season.
With two race winners Jarno Trulli and and Heikki Kovalainen joining the Malaysia-owned Lotus Formula 1 team, hopes are high for its debut next year.
Tony Fernandes, principal, Lotus F1 Racing team, said: "We now have the opportunity to win or to be in the top five or to be in the top 10. It isn't a dream anymore. We are there when you have three world class guys sitting next to us."
Launched barely three months ago, the 1Malaysia team also marks the return of the legendary Lotus to F1 racing after over a decade's absence.
Jarno Trulli, driver, Lotus F1 Team, said: "Lotus is a myth. For me, it's a privilege to race for lotus F1 team. We need to try to make it up upper first of all, then all the way to the top."
Heikki Kovalainen, driver, Lotus F1 Team, said: "I think it would be a waste of time to set the expectation too high because we can't underestimate the established team. At the moment we need to focus is to get the operation going 100 per cent."
The newly announced drivers’ line up also features 27-year-old Malaysian Fairus Fauzi who's a former test driver for the Spyker F1 team.
Currently 20 per cent of the team members are Malaysians, the government's goal is to hit 70 per cent in three years.
The cars are built abroad with all the testing done in the UK and Europe.
Right now the Lotus F1 team said it's one week ahead of schedule, the engine is ready, all crash tests' have been passed and the chasis is being built.
They said the car bearing the country's pride and hopes will be ready for the starting grid at the season's opening race in Bahrain in March next year. - CNA/vm
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