Old Cranleighan Jolyon Palmer (North 2009) will race for the Lotus team in the 2016 Formula One season.
Palmer, the team’s reserve driver this year, will partner Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in his F1 debut season. The 2014 champion of the GP2 feeder series, Palmer won the drive following a series of appearances in practice for the team this season.
“I’m obviously delighted that I’ll be racing in F1 next year,” Palmer said. “I’ve enjoyed and learned a lot from my year as reserve driver so I’m looking forward to putting this into practice as a race driver in 2016. I can’t wait for the season to start.”
The Lotus chairman and team principal, Gérard Lopez, added: “We are very pleased to announce that exciting British racing talent Jolyon Palmer is promoted to a race seat with the team for next season.
“We’ve seen Jolyon’s hard work and talent this season in the way he’s approached his third driver role and he is a really popular choice for the team.
“As well as having a great future ahead of him behind the wheel Jolyon is an intelligent and highly marketable asset to the team. He deserves this opportunity and everyone at Enstone is excited to see what he can achieve next year.
Lotus are in the process of being taken over by Renault, however, although the team are designing their new car around the Renault engine, the deal has not yet been formally confirmed.