Highly rated driver Marco Sorensen looks set to join Lotus as the Enstone based team’s new reserve driver.
It emerged recently that 2013 reserve Davide Valsecchi, who admitted “anger” at the decision to overlook him for Kimi Raikkonen’s race seat towards the end of last year, will probably not return to the role in 2014.
At the same time, it was reported that 23-year-old Dane Sorensen will almost certainly be Valsecchi’s successor.
He raced in in the team’s black and gold colours in the Formula Renault 3.5 series last year, finishing seventh, and in September made his Formula 1 test debut in a two-year-old car at the Paul Ricard track.
Valsecchi met with Lotus’ departing chief executive Patrick Louis last week, and before the meeting speculated to Formula 1passion.it: “Maybe he wants to wish me a happy new year, or tell me that he is resigning, or that they have hired Sorensen.”
The latter is probably the truth. Lotus announced on Monday that it has signed online Danish investment bank Saxo Bank as a new sponsor.
The bank is perhaps best known for its title sponsorships at the highest level of professional cycling, including the current Tinkoff-Saxo team.
“Saxo Bank is excited to have the opportunity to diversify its sporting partnerships, which now forge close ties to two of the world’s most popular sports,” co-CEOs and founders Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen said in a statement. (GMM)
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