India's Karun Chandhok after being sidelined at the Hispania Racing Team last year finally secured a reserve driver status for the Team Lotus backed by Tony Fernandes.

Karun Chandhok was in talks with Team Lotus for everal monthly before finally inking a deal as a reserve driver for 2011. Team Lotus have retained their last year's driver lineup Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli. The reserve seat was vacated by Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy who switched to Renault F1 for this year.