Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy is set to fill a reserve role for the revived Lotus team, but technical chief Mike Gascoyne has cooled talk that he will get a race seat.

Fauzy, a veteran of GP2, A1GP and the World Series by Renault, has always enjoyed lucrative personal sponsorship and was soon linked with the Lotus team – which is backed by Malaysia and will eventually be based in the nation.

But Gascoyne told Malaysia’s Star newspaper that Fauzy, whose only Formula 1 experience comes from a few Spyker test outings two years ago, was not ready to race in F1 yet.

“Fairuz will be in the team probably as a reserve driver or a test driver,” said Gascoyne

“He has the talent but we don’t want him to ‘crash and burn’ in the race because of his inexperience.”

Gascoyne said he would prefer to have an experienced line-up, even if Fauzy might reckon he could handle the step up already.

“If you ask any young driver if they’re ready for Formula 1, their answer will be ‘yes’,” said Gascoyne.

“But at the end of the day, it’s experience that matters when racing in Formula 1.”

Fauzy’s runner-up finish in this year’s Renault championship marked his most successful season of racing to date.

The 27-year-old has previously taken Malaysia to sixth in A1GP, and finished fourth in the inaugural GP2 Asia season – although he failed to score in two seasons in the main GP2 championship.

[source: itv.com]