Sottotitolo: come iniziare la giornata con una notizia da “fermate le macchine”! E, non essendo ancora il 1° aprile, il comunicato deve essere vero. L’arrivo nel Lotus F1 Team di Adderly Fong come pilota sviluppo. Avessi detto, starete sicuramente pensando… e chi è? Appunto. Il primo pilota di Hong Kong nel “pinnacle of motorsport” (per la cronaca disputò le libere 1 nel GP di Abu Dhabi dello scorso anno). Nulla di personale, Fong, ma siamo proprio certi che questa sia ancora Formula 1? Siamo proprio conciati male… Ovviamente nel comunicato non viene detto quanto sia costato questo ruolo al “povero” Adderly…
Barbara Premoli
Lotus F1 Team is pleased to announce Adderly Fong as a Development Driver for 2015. Adderly will undergo a driver development programme as well as contributing to the team’s simulator work for enhancing and improving the E23 Hybrid. Adderly will combine his Lotus F1 Team duties with competing in the GP3 Series and GT Asia seasons. He will work with the team at Grands Prix as well as at the team’s base in Enstone, England.
Matthew Carter, CEO, Lotus F1 Team: “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.”
Adderly Fong: “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. 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 1 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.”
About Adderly Fong
Born March 2, 1990, Adderly is the first ever Formula 1 Development Driver from Hong Kong to have driven F1 cars. He currently combines his Lotus F1 Team duties with competing in the GP3 Series with Koiranen GP and GT Asia Series with Bentley Team. Adderly only started racing when he was 14, but in ten years’ time, the Hong Kong ace successfully completed his first F1 test with Sauber at Valencia, covered 99 laps in a two-year-old C31 on October 22, 2014. He also became the first from Hong Kong to make F1 practice debut during last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Adderly won the Audi R8 LMS Cup series title in 2013 and became the series’ youngest title holder.
