It was confirmed earlier this week that Lotus would be parting company with 2010 engine supplier Cosworth at the end of the season, therefore ending the contract two years early; paddock gossip now states that a Renault deal is in the pipeline.

“Singapore is going to be amazing, for me and the whole team,” said Malaysian Fernandes. “We’ll be making a couple of very exciting announcements over the race weekend, so it’ll be good for us on and off-track.”

“On a purely visual level, it will be very cool to see our cars under the lights and I think that green and yellow paint scheme, with the white flashes running along the cars, will look amazing on-track – it’s something the fans will love.

“They also need to keep an eye on the skies, as the pictures of one of our AirAsia planes in Lotus Racing colors have appeared on the internet. I was sent a few pictures of it by Twitter and, while that is obviously very cool, it means even more to me that that plane will be taking the team back home to Malaysia after the race and that they will be taking a bit of time off between Singapore and Japan in our other home.”