UPDATED
By Shazwan Mustafa KamalSEPANG, Oct 30 — The 1 Malaysia Lotus F1 team today announced the appointment of Riad Asmat as its chief executive officer.
Team principal Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes told a press conference: “The team is proud to announce the appointment of Riad Asmat to lead the management of the 1 Malaysia F1 team and the racing team, Lotus F1 Racing.
“Riad's expertise, which is a good blend of both corporate experience and motorsports knowledge, will provide the dynamic and success-oriented leadership that the Malaysian team requires. I am confident that his knowledge of motorsports coupled with vast experience will contribute to the success of the 1 Malaysia F1 Team."
Prior to this appointment, Riad, 38, was attached to the managing director's office of Proton Holdings Berhad as general manager.
"F1 is very competitive and it operates in an extremely challenging environment. In this respect, the focus will be on teamwork and its importance can never be overstressed.
"All of us in the 1 Malaysia Formula One Team understand that this is a very important first step for the nation. We will make it our key objective to build a very strong and robust foundation moving forward," said Riad upon his appointment.
The new man in Fernandes's team joined Proton in 2006 and was tasked with the development of its motorsports programme. This included R3 and Proton Axle Team. He also managed the company's involvement in the A1 Grand Prix.
A chief operating officer has also been selected to manage the technical organisation in Britain reporting directly to chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne.
Keith Saunt has been given that task in overseeing technical operations on a day-to-day basis at the team's current facility in Hingham. His previous experience includes senior roles with Team Lotus International, Benetton, Renault and most recently Red Bull Racing, where he held the role of chief operating officer and director of Red Bull Technology.
Fernandes explained at length that the Lotus F1 project was getting lots of support throughout the country as well as the world.
"I had an online conference the other day where I found that 89 per cent of respondents stated that they wanted to work for the 1 Malaysia F1 Team. Now I thought that was encouraging but then I found that 48 per cent actually thought this team has the chance to become world champion," said the team principal who also stated that the current progress of the actual race car in itself was three days' ahead of schedule.
He however refused to disclose any information regarding the number of Malaysians who would actually be part of the technical support team when it debuts in February 2010.
He was also non-committal regarding the selection of the driver for the Malaysian F1 team.
"We know what we want, and we know who we want as the driver. We've been watching him for some time now and we will get our driver soon."
When asked whether Fairuz Fauzy, the current driver for Team A1 Malaysia, would make it to the final cut, Fernandes said things would be clearer at the end of November.
"Let's see whether he can make the jump forward," quipped Fernandes.
It is understood that four drivers will be shortlisted for the final cut, and Fernandes insisted that "we have to have at least one Malaysian on the team."
Among the familiar faces at today’s press conference were former F1 driver Alex Yoong and Team Malaysia A1 man Owen Leeds who was often seen conversing with Riad.
There has been speculation of a possible merger or a shift of the pool of talent between Lotus F1 and A1 Team Malaysia, something which has been dismissed by Gascoyne.
Critics are also sceptical as to whether this venture would really kick off owing to the short preparation period as well as the billions involving in kick-starting the team, money that many feel would be better off spent on improving the nation's infrastructure since government participation would be via Proton.
"It's okay to dream, some dreams become reality. Of course there are a billion sceptics out there. We are out to prove that they are wrong," said Fernandes.
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