Mike Gascoyne signs new five-year deal at Lotus Racing

Chief technical officer for the Lotus Racing Formula One team, Mike Gascoyne, has signed a new contract to stay with the team until 2015.

The team re-entered F1 this season and have yet to score a championship point. Despite this, Gascoyne has signalled his intention to end his career in the team.

Gascoyne said: “Having started the team from scratch with Tony it was always my intention to finish my career here, so it’s great to have formally agreed a five-year deal.

“I’m extremely grateful to everyone involved in Lotus Racing for having the confidence to take this into a long-term contract. We’ve had a great start to our partnership together, and I’m looking forward to continuing that for the next five years, and even beyond that.”

Team principle Tony Fernandes added: “Mike’s five-year deal is a major announcement for the whole Lotus Racing team.

“It shows just how serious we are, not only about how far ahead we are setting our aspirations, but also as a reward to Mike for the incredibly hard work he and the team have already put in to get us from literally four people back in September ’09 to our current position as a serious F1 player with a very bright future ahead of us.”

Gascoyne has previously worked with McLaren, Tyrrell, Jordan, Benetton, Toyota and Spyker,