Hong Kong born driver Adderly Fong was announced as Lotus’ new development driver.

Fong will join Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jorda who also have development roles at the Enstone based team.

The GP3 racer will undergo work in the simulator aimed towards improving the 2015 E23. Fong will still race in GP3 and in the GT Asia series which means this will be a very busy year for the young man.

Fong drove for Sauber in October last year and made his F1 practice debut at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Lotus feel that that the experience he’s gained will be of much value to the team

“This is a great opportunity to further my racing career,” commented Fong.

I’ll be able to learn how an F1 team operates during race weekends as an integral part of the team and these invaluable experiences are going to lay the foundations of my future development as an F1 driver,” he added.

“I am happy but I am not going to get carried away, for this is only the first of many steps.”

“I aim to become the first Chinese driver to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix which will assist to promote the sport in China and also in Hong Kong. There is great potential for me with Lotus F1 Team so I can’t wait to get underway in my new role.”

Lotus CEO Nick Carter added: “It’s great to have Adderly join the team. We have an aggressive development programme with the E23 so he will be able to both learn from our engineers and race drivers as well as contribute to our car through the course of the season.

We have a very strong driver line-up which Adderly will join so he has a great opportunity to learn ahead of him. We are committed to moving back up the competitive order and Adderly’s work behind the scenes will be invaluable in assisting us to achieve this.”