Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne has signed a new five year deal with Lotus, effectively keeping him with the Anglo-Malaysian outfit until 2015.

The team made the announcement in a brief statement this morning, while taking the time to have a dig about the ongoing row over naming rights.

It reads as follows:

In a strong statement of intent about the aspirations of Lotus Racing, soon to become Team Lotus, an announcement has been made today that Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne has signed a five year deal, tying him to the Anglo / Malaysian squad until at least 2015.

Under Mike's technical direction, Lotus Racing has gone from confirmation of its entry to the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship in September 2009 to its current position of tenth, and is now forging ahead with its 2011 car which will be raced under the Team Lotus name.

Mike Gascoyne "Having started the team from scratch with Tony it was always my intention to finish my career here, so it's great to have formally agreed a five year deal. I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to Tony, Din, Nasa, Riad and the whole team, and I'm extremely grateful to everyone involved in Lotus Racing for having the confidence to take this into a long-term contract. We've had a great start to our partnership together, and I'm looking forward to continuing that for the next five years, and even beyond that."

Team Principal Tony Fernandes couldn't hide his delight at securing a long-term deal with Mike, saying "Mike's five year deal is a major announcement for the whole Lotus Racing team. It shows just how serious we are, not only about how far ahead we are setting our aspirations, but also as a reward to Mike for the incredibly hard work he and the team have already put in to get us from literally four people back in September '09 to our current position as a serious F1 player with a very bright future ahead of us. On a personal level, I've really enjoyed the last year that we've been working together, and I'm very excited about working with Mike for many years to come."