While yesterday’s Turkish GP qualifying saw familiar results for the Lotus Racing team – Jarno Trulli finishing the session 19th and Heikki Kovalainen 20th – the mood in the camp is good, and they’re firmly setting their sights on the midfield teams ahead, listed by team boss Tony Fernandes as Williams, Toro Rosso and Sauber.
“All in all today’s been another good day and it proves to me that our future is very bright. To be honest I was starting to dream about Q2, and while we may still be a little bit off that we’re clearly getting closer and closer, and thinking back to where we started, that’s incredible,” the AirAsia chief said.
“Today we were just 3.2 seconds off the pace of the Red Bulls in Q1 and if you cast your mind back 10 short weeks to Bahrain you can see just how far we’ve come. There we were over five seconds away from the outright Q1 pace and anyone in the sport will tell you what an achievement it is to find nearly two seconds in just seven races.
“We were also just 2.4 seconds off Ferrari, celebrating their 800th race in Turkey, which is pretty spectacular for a team who are only seven races old – I think that shows to all those who expressed doubts about our participation that they were wrong. We’re also now in a position to turn our attention to the 2011 car, but we’re still here and fighting hard for this season,” he added.
Although Lotus has already shifted main focus on the 2011 car, Tony says that “there’s still more to come from the 2010 car, maybe even another 0.5 seconds.”
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Bravo, congratulations on your wining and keep up the good work. Thank to the people of One Malaysia which support you even with they food subsidy reducing in 5 years, Wining the F1 is like making a name for our country, even the people are paying more expensive for they daily food and petrol, when lotus enjoy champagne and fame our rakyat suffer in silence, Rakyat di dahulukan is a great word
So when you win remember the one Malaysian does support you with their subsidy going to “0”
When the AP king enjoy the subsidy from the Putrajaya and the other are reduce, this is the theory of physic.
Gogo malaysian rat team. Show the world that despite being a starving shit hole full of rats, you can misappropriate the Lotus F1 name and shame it badly. Viva capitalism!
RM is going up… economy is doing good.. the only reason any Malaysian can starve is because of lazy, subsidy-dependent ,everything want other people to ‘suap’ in your mouth attitude like you and your accompliance above…
Correct correct correct..
Just wondering, if lotus is branded with malaysian, what is proton? Arent they suppose to run proton in F1 as a malaysian team? Lotus is still british right?
It’s the same story with GM. The Chevrolet Optra was built and designed by Daewoo Auto (a GM company) as the Lacetti. So is the Optra American or Korean?
hello! lotus is running in BRITISH RACING GREEN! HELLO mana rais yatim, tak complain pasal tu! all those anti-colonial bn peeps tak perasan atau buta sejarah?!
in f1, even 1 second is alot of difference. what more 3 or 4 second off !
vanish > lotus belongs to proton. full stop.
ummooo> shut ur pie-hole when u got no F1 comment. bring ur unhappiness to other “politics” forum. we are here to discuss cars. kereta. paham ?
paham abang sori………….. yeah ……………. go lotus go air asia go one malaysia grap the checkers flag home…
Proton bought Lotus if I’m not mistaken. But to put proton in F1, Boleh ke? Race with
campro cps engine? forgive me, I’m bashing them,better utililize $ to stimulate economy
what u think?
yea congratulations lotus, can’t wait for the government to spend more than RM 1 billion to build and develop a state of the art F1 development centre complete with wind tunnel in Sepang (last time i heard Tony is not footing the bill, it’ll be on the govt, the SIC is by all means owned by the govt and we’re footing the bill for it and all the motorsports events conducted in SIC so far-govt paid for the hosting rights, correct me if i’m wrong though) so that Lotus can fight with the big boys while malaysians would have to cope with removal of subsidies and ever increasing prices of basic necessities without and equal increase in salary…so much for a “high income nation”….
haha, Malaysian govt love to talk cock.. now we are 364 billion in debt!
if u are a poor country act like a poor country la.. even mighty china doesn’t have an F1 team
remember…. vote BN
what the hell are you guys bragging about salary… income… subsidi… AP…
even your parent will not gonna support you for your entire life span on earth… so shut up or put up.
well for lotus; it’s good they make progress but hopefully they can grab a point before the end of the season. Another major upgrade in silverstone… looking forward to that.
If lotus so well known and a good brand why don t they use their own money or ur money if u don t mind
just wondering, why can’t they run F1 Proton then? Isnt that better? No bashing yeah, just discussion to clear my confused mind
Because they can attract better sponsor by the name of Lotus rather than Proton. Just a gut feeling.
proton is not at that par yet, lotus is known for their racing history..
if you put proton then what would people think if you sell their current models
now at other country? even their engine is 1.6cc the most…
and also about getting the sponsor and media attention as i heard many times that the commentator mention lotus name… they can use the lotus brand to market their car in europe which they are doing now with lotus ride and handling marketing strategy..
If I’m you Paul, I would have kicked all this politics out of here. Have you guys got nothing else to think of other than politics 24×7?
Sadly the dirty, corrupted politics impact all aspects of our daily live.
When you’re young, full of piss & vineger, politics interfere with your pursuit of pleasure. But remember this, what if you didnt do anything today & tomorrow you find you cant afford your pleasures.
The car you bought has elements of politics involved (be it AP or high duties), the petrol you use has elements of politics involved (petrol subsidy), the aftermarket bling bling you buy has elements of politics involved or even the half cut engine you intend to buy has elements of politics involved.
You decide the Gov you wish for. If you do not do your part (ie. register & vote), you have nobody to blame but yourself when you lose all that you hold dear.
The country is in a crisis & at a turning point. Do your part for the sake of your children & future grand children.
And you really think changing governments can help our future generations? Please, they’re just as bad if not worse than the incumbent! They’re nothing but two-faced liars!
I think Mary Schimch said it best when she said “Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander.”
Lets keep politics out of Paultan!
You have your say, I have my say. It’s your right to have your say.
We agree to disagree & I respect that.
Mary Schimch? I remember that phrase from Baz Luhrman’s song, “Everybody wear sunscreen”
Anyway, the grass is always greener on the other side. Malaysians love to complain about their politics, as if there are countries out there with no issues. At the end of the day, you are your govt. Change starts with you.. and the best change is to start appreciating things. You are not the worst in the world. Quite the contrary.
haha..bashers…bashers…sip it to the last drop eee…yeah vote for PR..tak habis2 politic..giler aper..
neway…keep a gud job lotus..ignore all there ignorant…though their words so much important..plz b reminded..there r almost 60% who care not to bark like a dog but hold a majority votes for these country…
by the way, does anyone know if the real lotus join tak tahun depan ngn lotus f1 racing???
He seems like he was so indulge with closing the 2.4 second gap and then overly preaching it to the public for his personal feeling maybe just to relieve himself for the massive critism from the masses sof the other side..In fact he totally forgotten that result is actually how it should be from the beginning and ignorant to that of the 6 second lap is a super devastatingly shame by any standard of racing in fl…Then again,I don’t know if he being too single minded thinking that only if his team would improved for the next season while others would well remained the same for nothing to do for their own improvement it would be really fun if that’s the case…As far as i known closing to the gap of 1 second or fewer to the Q1 is absolutely a “bottle neck” to be overcomed..unless u’re very very well resourced especially in term of finacial then that’s the keys to achieve it and somehow needed for at least 4 years above to get to the podium consistently even if that’s the case…God bless malaysia for not being broken by 2019 as one suggested otherwise the beatifully F1 dream would be fallen as well…amen..
Eleh, if you think PR’s any better you’re naive as hell. They’re just the same. Same shit, different crony!
Anyway, good luck Lotus, keep up the pace and prove everyone wrong!
Tony is all but crap talk in F1
full of scripted reasons for failures – to justify to the few sponsors Lotus has from pulling out
Tony Fernandes: I was starting to dream about Q2!
Yeah thats the spirit !! Your car retired every weak due to repeated hydraulic problem which ur dumb team unable to solve……. and yet u are sane enough to dream about Q2. u know what? u can continue to dream about it until ur team goes bankrupt !……
Talking bad about ppl…
let hear your about success story…
Do you have any?
correct!!! correct!!! correct!
everybody said tony was insane when he was about to setup air asia in the past,now look at him dude!
Tony is using F1 as a giant billboard, ie. it’s boils down to advertisement.
Question is, where is the actual $$$ coming from. He already has massive loans to repay from buying all the new Airbus.
Big question is, who is his backer, ie. who is the $$$ man behind Tony F?
Air Asia is a listed company and is the one which has to repay the Airbus purchase, not Tony. Tony’s private vehicle is Tune Group (it’s on Lotus car livery; Air Asia in on Williams) dealing with hotels, phone service, insurance etc. The question should be… who’s funding Tune Group?
Tony carry himself like a champ, talk like a champ, lead like a champ……
Unfortunately, his team is NOWHERE and NOTHING of a champ.
FIA should give him a trophy for championing in talking (cock)
When you think and talk like a champ, half the battle is won. If only our badminton team did the same.
What a shame..
The team is enjoying positive support from european supporters for being the best of the new teams and for trying hard despite having the least amount or time to prepare before the season started.
It is ironic because it was the Europeans that were supposed to be critical because of their emotional attachment to the old Team Lotus.
You Malaysians don’t deserve any success because you wish nothing but failure for your own countrymen’s effort. Have a look at other nations with strong sporting culture and you will feel thoroughly embarrassed. Pride starts from you.
I second that! Always rooting for own failure while looking up to foreign teams like there’s no tomorrow. I think we have to concede that we’re no longer Merdeka, since our minds have been conquered by the Westerners. It may not be physical, but it’s worse!
Agree with Diablo… all of you who critics Lotus (proton) should ashamed of your self and start packing your belongings and move to europe.
Although Lotus does technically belongs to Proton but it ain’t managed by Proton. So don’t talk both of them together. For the rest, I agree.
Group Lotus PLC is a Proton subsidiary managed by foreigners in UK. Lotus F1 is managed by Malaysian principals (TF, Naza etc).
Quite frustrated when both lotus f1 cars didn’t finish the race. Hopefully the engineer can rectified the problem regarding the hidraulic system.
Please improve from time to time and hopefully lotus f1 can collect some points before the last race for 2010.
Good luck.
Wassalam..
Comment from Diablo , is simply true(?)…Or is it really true ?
Can somebody who bashed Lotus F1 say something about the statement ?
ringing the bell……
These bashers are sore losers…
I really like to hear you write a story about you and your success and let see what are others opinion about it…
If you had nothing to be proud of, dont say a word… at least Tony has the courage in realizing his words..
You bashers, what have you got? LOSERS!!!
Lol…..a running dog of tony? What are u so proud of then? Do u even deserve a chance to scold like a mad aunt in street to peoples who are doubtful on his debatable dream as basher? Okay,now u tell me what does he achieved by far in f1 ? Finishing 19th,20th,21st places occasionally is truly something to be proud of?? Come on, please dont always talking cocky there for how much gap has been closed and dreaming for becoming Q2,..rather can u please prove to us that ur team being able to be finished at 15th place or above even “once” in the season and by either one of ur driver then only thats the time to talk about it in front of the masses..otherwise,it may well turned to be smth that’s really launghable no matter in the dosmetic or foreign f1 issue….
U all have to see all this thing in a bigger picture. Dont bash everything easily.
IMO, what lotus f1 did is good for our country. Even though we are highly in debts right now, what this f1 and any other thing that our govt show is that we have our plan to solve our debts n make our economy stable.
From a business person point of view, i will see malaysia is a good country to invest in because the economy getting better, we are peacefull, business environment is good, we show the world what we capable of (f1, air asia, sepang circuit). An investor will invest something that still keep on growing n not in something that already matured n already on top.
This f1 thing is really a big advert to tell foreign investor that we can do anything n willing to learn. That is what important.
What is obvious is that the Lotus F1 team has failed over and over again and yet there
are some who get suckered into believeng that we have improved,
Tony F is talking rocks when he tells everyone how good Lotus is.
Talk so much but with nothing to prove ,,,, even BMW Sauber no hoper
has 1 point. poodah-lah Tony Conman!!
dear fellow malaysian,
Mr Tony might read this and laughin at us..we’re babbling about this n that but will it directly even affect Lotus F1 team performance…no one does achieved instant glory..rarely..i donna..
but majority wont had a chance…LOTUS is a new team..who care where the fund came from, as long as it’s not comin from my or ur pocket.yes proton is GLC, but F1 pay it back by advertise Proton to the world.. Tony conman, big mouth or whatever..hahaha i still salute him..he’s a brilliant businessman and opportunist..
give them a chance..if it’s me, i dont care s*** if i lose as long as im happy, my fren happy, my sponsor happy haha..big mouth mean free expose and advertise..bashers cant u see it..sian kamu semua, aint got not even 1cent clue how to run a unit of business…thats the same reason why some people lure to notice chelsea, maurinho not abrahamovic money..
Vijay Mallya spent a few years and more than a few million before Force India cars started to score points. As long as Tune & Naza are using their own money for this venture, I couldn’t give half a rat’s a$$ and I wish them success.
I don’t blame the bashers in here. They’re just new to the sport and have very little undestanding of F1. I’m sure they will understand given time.
For now the only thing that will please them is to see a newbie team with one of smallest budget to debut in F1 and instantly win races, beating the likes of McLaren, Ferrari etc who have many times more money and many decades more experience.
Tony fernandes ball carriers, please learn to carry your own pa’s instead.bitches..
Another brainless basher. Hehehe. I bet this guy just work as a salesman who get a very low pay. Thats why he so angry coz he cannot spend like tony does. Pity you.