Gascoyne to stay at Lotus until 2015 29 Sep 2010
Although they’re still in the midst of their debut season, Lotus have shored up their future success in Formula One racing by inking a five-year deal with chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne. The new contract means Gascoyne will stay at the team until at least 2015.
“Mike’s five year deal is a major announcement for the whole Lotus Racing team,” explained team principal Tony Fernandes. “It shows just how serious we are, not only about how far ahead we are setting our aspirations, but also as a reward to Mike for the incredibly hard work he and the team have already put in to get us from literally four people back in September ’09 to our current position as a serious F1 player with a very bright future ahead of us. On a personal level, I’ve really enjoyed the last year that we’ve been working together, and I’m very excited about working with Mike for many years to come.”
Before joining Lotus, the Briton had honed his skills during spells with Force India, McLaren, Sauber, Tyrrell, Jordan, Renault and Toyota.
Gascoyne added: “Having started the team from scratch with Tony it was always my intention to finish my career here, so it’s great to have formally agreed a five year deal. I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to Tony, Din (Kamarudin Meranun), Nasa (SM Nasarudin), Riad (Asmat) and the whole team, and I’m extremely grateful to everyone involved in Lotus Racing for having the confidence to take this into a long-term contract. We’ve had a great start to our partnership together, and I’m looking forward to continuing that for the next five years, and even beyond that.”
Under Gascoyne’s technical direction, Lotus are currently the leading new team, occupying tenth in the standings, ahead of fellow newcomers Virgin and HRT. Although they are yet to score any points, they recorded a best finish of 13th place at this year’s Australian Grand Prix, courtesy of Heikki Kovalainen.
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