Luiz Razia joins Alexander Rossi in Team Lotus' Abu Dhabi test line-up
Luiz Razia will drive for Team Lotus during the young driver tests in Abu Dhabi following next weekend's grand prix
The team has already announced that it will field Alexander Rossi during the 15-17 November sessions, and has now confirmed that Razia will get a day of running too. Rossi and Razia will also race for Team Lotus' GP2 arm AirAsia in the non-championship event in Abu Dhabi on the preceding grand prix weekend.
Razia raced for AirAsia in GP2 this year and took two podium finishes on the way to 12th in the standings. He drove for Virgin in last winter's young driver Formula 1 tests, and also ran for Lotus in Friday practice at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Team boss Riad Asmat felt Razia's latest F1 chance was well-earned.
"Luiz has been a key player in the 2011 season in helping grow our GP2 team from a starting point of an empty factory in late 2010 to finishing sixth in our first championship," said Asmat.
"Throughout the season he has also been involved in the F1 operation, both on track where he took part in FP1 for us in China and did a very solid job there, and in sitting in on briefings with the engineers at various races to grow his experience of the F1 environment and help increase his knowledge of the way we work so he can jump straight into the F1 seat when he has his chance.
"I am sure he will perform extremely well for us in both the GP2 event and in the F1 car and we are all looking forward to seeing him successfully complete this next stage of his development."
Razia said he was delighted that Lotus felt he deserved more F1 running.
"I believe this is confirmation of all the good progress we have made this year and I am very pleased to be working with the team again," he said. "We had a great relationship throughout our first season and it will be good to continue that in Abu Dhabi.
"The test in F1 is a very big deal for me - it is a full day behind the wheel so I will be able to get a lot from it and hopefully give the team some good feedback.
"They will have a lot to test ahead of 2012 and I am really looking forward to being involved in that."
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