Fong added to Lotus’s development driver roster

Hong Kong racer Adderly Fong has joined Lotus as a development driver for the 2015 season.

According to the team, 25-year-old Fong will “undergo a driver development programme as well as contributing to the team’s simulator work for enhancing and improving the E23 Hybrid.”

Fong, who joins Carmen Jorda on Lotus’s development driver roster, has recent F1 experience having driven for Sauber during FP1 in Abu Dhabi last year. He will combine his duties for the Enstone squad with competing in the GP3 Series and GT Asia seasons.

“This is a great opportunity to further my racing career; I’ll be able to learn how an F1 team operates during race weekends as an integral part of the team and these invaluable experiences are going to lay the foundations of my future development as an F1 driver,” said Fong.

“I am happy but I am not going to get carried away, for this is only the first of many steps. I aim to become the first Chinese driver to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix which will assist to promote the sport in China and also in Hong Kong. There is great potential for me with Lotus F1 Team so I can’t wait to get underway in my new role.”

Lotus’s CEO, Matthew Carter, added: “It’s great to have Adderly join the team. We have an aggressive development programme with the E23 so he will be able to both learn from our engineers and race drivers as well as contribute to our car through the course of the season. We have a very strong driver line-up which Adderly will join so he has a great opportunity to learn ahead of him. We are committed to moving back up the competitive order and Adderly’s work behind the scenes will be invaluable in assisting us to achieve this.”