F1: Lotus name drivers

As widely predicted, although we had hoped for better, Jarno Trulli has been named as the team's number one. He will be joined by former McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen who had a miserable season last year - but not a lot worse than his world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

The third driver is Fairuz Fauzy (note to reporters: Fairuz is his surname but he's happy for to be called by it).

Although Fairuz is listed as third driver, this is not the same as being test driver and Lotus say that role has not yet been filled.

There is little doubt that Trulli will provide considerable development input - he's been in Formula One since 1997 and whatever changes in the technical regulations may bring, he's seen it all before.

And Kovalainen is no greenhorn: he's fast and smooth - and he rarely breaks the car. He needs a new challenge to prove to himself he can achieve at the highest levels of the sport. Lotus is convinced that they will give him a car that will regularly be in the top ten in its first season. The hope, therefore, is that both will spur each other on to get higher.

Fairuz is contracted to run in the World Cup by Renault series - but his team has a large Malaysian element and there is no doubt that national interests will have played into his hands to step up to Formula One. It's to be hoped that he does not end up in a dead-end like Luca Badoer did when he joined Ferrari as a test driver: a perpetual bridesmaid until the bride was indisposed, only to find that he had lost the edge that had taken him so far.