LOTUS F1 RACING REVS UP ONE WEEK AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's Lotus F1 Racing Team will be
revving up their engine on Feb 5, a week ahead than the earlier scheduled date
(Feb 12), to ensure the car is ready for tests at the Bahrain Grand Prix circuit
in March.

The team's Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said as the date to test
the engine is confirmed, it will be on track for the first time at the third
official tests at two circuits in Spain, Jerez from Feb 17 and Barcelona from
Feb 25.

"We are also aiming to run chassis two for the last two days of that
Barcelona test.

"This is obviously a great boost for everyone and shows how much hard work
has been done since our entry in the World Formula One (F1) Grand Prix (GP) was
confirmed on Sept 12," he said in the team's official website.

Gascoyne said the current development programme would see a major update at
the Spanish Grand Prix in May.


"We are aiming to be ahead of the new teams when we reach Bahrain but we
will also like to be close to the midfield teams after the first few races of
the season.

"The update we have planned for Spain will see a boost in performance when
we reach Barcelona which will give us the chance to start fighting with the
slowest of the established teams which, given progress so far, has to be our
next goal," he said.

The 2010 World F1 GP season opening race will start in Bahrain on March 14,
followed by Australian GP (March 28) and Malaysian GP (April 4).

Lotus F1 Racing has chosen Italy's Jarno Trulli, Finland's Heikki
Kovalainen and Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy as drivers to spearhead driving
its debut F1 season in 2010.

-- BERNAMA