Muhammad Fairuz bin Mohd Fauzy (born 24 October 1982 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regar ...

professional

race car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...

driver.

Early career

Fairuz started competing in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

events in 1994 before making the move to British Formula Ford at the start of 1999. He moved to British Formula Renault in 2000, developing his skills there before moving up to

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seate ...

in 2002, albeit in the B-Class. He moved up to the main class in 2003, driving for both the SYR and Promatecme teams, before driving for both the Menu and P1 teams in 2004. He moved to the GP2 Series for

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, becoming one of a number of Asian drivers in the championship. Despite being the only driver to start every race and not score a point, he continued in the series for

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, again scoring no points. During this time he was also one of A1 Team Malaysia's drivers (along with

Alex Yoong Alexander Charles Yoong Loong (; born 20 July 1976), is a Malaysian professional racing driver of Chinese and English parentage. Yoong began his career in saloon cars before moving into the Proton one-make series. He later raced in single-sea ...

) in the A1 Grand Prix series. Fairuz raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for the

Cram Competition Cram Motorsport (formerly known as Cram Competition) is an auto racing team based in Italy. Cram started in 1994 out of the Tatuus Tatuus is an Italian chassis manufacturer for a series of formula racing series, being first founded in 1980. Th ...

team. He returned to GP2 for

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, driving for the Super Nova team in the GP2 Asia Series. In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, he competed in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Mofaz Racing. After entering the final race in sixth place, Fairuz finished second in the race at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón and leapfrogged the four drivers above him, to finish as runner-up to Bertrand Baguette in the championship standings.

Formula One

Fairuz was confirmed as one of Spyker F1's test and reserve drivers for , Fairuz was tipped for a Lotus Racing reserve seat for 2010. On 9 November 2009 Lotus Racing chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne confirmed Fairuz would be the test driver for the team but cooled down talks he was going to get a race seat. Fairuz was announced as the third driver for Lotus on 13 December 2009. Fairuz Fauzy 2010 Malaysia 1st Free Practice

Fairuz Fauzy 2010 Malaysia 1st Free Practice

Fairuz replaced Heikki Kovalainen in the first free practice session at the

2010 Malaysian Grand Prix The 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was the third round in the 2010 Formula One season. It was held in Sepang, Malaysia on 4 April 2010. The race was won by Sebastian Vettel leading a one-t ...

, as Jarno Trulli won a coin toss against Kovalainen. He drove a total of nineteen laps during the session, setting the 22nd fastest time, beating the Hispania Racing cars of Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna. He also took part in the first practice session at the British Grand Prix, replacing Jarno Trulli, where he set the 23rd fastest time (1:39.510) ahead of the Hispania Racing car of Sakon Yamamoto. He replaced Heikki Kovalainen for the first free practice session of the German Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. At the end of the 2010 season, Fairuz parted company with Lotus Racing after one year of his five-year contract. The relationship between Lotus Racing and

Group Lotus Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England which manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics. Lotus was previously involved in Formula One r ...

soured during 2010, resulting in GL deciding to withdraw its backing from the team and instead sponsoring Renault F1 for the season onwards. As part of the deal, Fairuz became one of Renault's test and reserve drivers, alongside Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean and Ho-Pin Tung.

Post-Formula One

After stating his desire to return to full-time racing for 2011, Fairuz re-signed for Super Nova Racing to drive in the

2011 GP2 Series The 2011 GP2 Series season was the forty-fifth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also seventh season under the GP2 Series moniker, the pan-European motor racing series for One-Design, single specification Open wheel ...

and

2011 GP2 Asia Series The 2011 GP2 Asia Series was the fourth and final season of the GP2 Asia Series, and the second to be held entirely in a single calendar year. Season summary Rather than starting at the end of 2010 and running through the winter as with the pr ...

, alongside Luca Filippi and Johnny Cecotto Jr. respectively. After finishing fourteenth in the Asia series, he scored his first main series points in the first round of the championship. He finished 18th in the main series championship.

Racing record