- 14 Nov 09, 20:29#169755It's interesting to see that Dallara are in a way making an F1 comeback as the manufacturer of the Campos chassis. Does that mean that the Campos cars will be referred to as Dallaras like they used to do when they made cars for Scuderia Italia?
I don't think so, otherwise we'd probably have heard something about it by now, but on that note:
Campos thrilled with Dallara's progress
By Matt Beer Saturday, November 14th 2009, 11:01 GMT
The Campos team is confident that it is well on course to be ready for its first Formula 1 season after driver Bruno Senna had a seat fitting at the Dallara factory.
Senna is the first driver to be signed by Adrian Campos's team, which the Spaniard is running in collaboration with the Meta organisation. Italian constructor Dallara is providing cars for the project.
"With each visit to Dallara, the advances in the car are more evident and we are starting to see it in its final size after having observed the development on scale during the wind tunnel working stage," said Campos.
Toni Cuquerella, the Campos engineer overseeing Dallara's work, added that the team had been able to get a head-start on its preparations for the 2010 races.
"The project is really advanced and we have already passed all the internal tests of homologation," he said. "Dallara has been working extraordinarily hard for months and we are really happy with the results up to now.
"Thanks to the current advanced development of the car and the data provided by Dallara, we have been able to carry out the first simulations in almost all the circuits that will organise a Formula 1 grand prix in 2010."
Senna was also delighted with current progress - and particularly the significant moment of his seat fitting.
"Being able to sit inside the car, do a seat fit and allow Dallara to make a tailor made, moulded seat, taking into account my exact height and proportions, constitutes another step forward in order to be present in the F1 group test sessions in February," said the Brazilian.
"I have raced in cars made by Dallara before and I trust completely in their way of working as well as their experience and quality.
"We are a new team and we are going to struggle at the beginning for sure, but if we keep on working in this direction, we will be able to make a good debut in our first season."
And on the topic of this thread -
Lotus: Malaysian driver not essential
By Edd Straw Saturday, November 14th 2009, 10:47 GMT
Lotus F1 Racing does not need to place a Malaysian driver in one of its race seats in 2010, according to team principal Tony Fernandes, but the team is keen to run a driver from that part of the world in the future.
Fernandes, a successful Malaysian entrepreneur who launched Air Asia, is keen for the team to create a platform for driver development in South East Asia. But he insists that the team will only be willing to run a Malaysian driver if they are ready for Formula 1.
Fairuz Fauzy, who finished second in this year's Formula Renault 3.5 championship, is likely to be involved with the team, possibly as a third driver.
"That's not relevant for me at the moment because it's not a one-year project," he told AUTOSPORT when asked whether Lotus needs a Malaysian race driver next year. "The important thing is the Malaysian team, not the Malaysian driver.
"The fact is, people can support the team. If you look at Ferrari, they are an Italian team and every Italian supports them whether you have Kimi Raikkonen in the car, who's a Finn, or Fernando Alonso, who is Spanish. Ferrari hasn't had an Italian world champion for a very long time, but it is still the Italian team."
Fernandes is also keen not to repeat the negative publicity Alex Yoong received in Malaysia when he raced for Minardi in 2001-2002. Despite going on to become a race-winning A1GP driver, Yoong did not have the experience required for F1 and received some unfair press coverage during his time as the Malaysian media grew impatient with his battle to get up to speed as a grand prix driver.
"He was thrown in at the deep end and we won't make that mistake," said Fernandes. "Everyone feels that they are ready, but when you have a grid that is separated by 1.5 seconds it's highly competitive. The idea of Fairuz Fauzy is not just to shove a Malaysian driver in there to say that you are doing it.
"The success of this programme is whether you have 20 Malaysian drivers that have the ability and that one day maybe a team like McLaren or Ferrari has a Malaysian driver. But it is not critical for me. If Fauzy makes it, great - that's a bonus – but we are not going to throw him in at the deep end."
Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne has said he is keen to have two experienced drivers, with ex-Toyota racer Jarno Trulli in contention for a drive, but Fernandes is keen to have a blend of youth and experience.
"If we can get a guy who has been doing it for a long time, that's fantastic because you can't buy experience and he can help us develop the car and the team," said Fernandes. "And he can help us after the race, adding value to driver development.
"On the second driver, I think that it's good to have someone young because sometimes if you have been doing it for 15 years there is a little bit of cynicism and it gets repetitious. If you've got an energetic young guy that rubs off on you.
"Ultimately, I will leave it to Mike and the team to decide."
Rising number one of Formula 1, Juan - Juan, one wonders should Juan only win one Formula 1 one year, would Juan have won that one in round one, Juan??
