This is the new T127 from Lotus F1 Racing, now run by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes. It ends the 16-year gap since the famous Lotus name last raced in the Formula One World Championship.
The classic British Racing Green makes a welcome appearance on the T127 adopting the same colour scheme first used by the legendary outfit way back in the 1950s and 60s.
Tony Fernandes expressed his joy when the new 2010-spec Lotus was officially launched in London and he hopes it can carry on the rich motor sport history as pioneered by the original owner of the team Colin Chapman.
“Words cannot express how I feel today,” said Fernandes. “It is an amazing job to get an F1 licence, have five people in Hingham and turn up today with this car.
“I was thrilled when Clive [Chapman] said that this was just like the beginning of Lotus back in the early days.”
He added: “We know we have a huge burden on our shoulders, standing on the shoulder of giants – [Jim] Clark, [Stirling] Moss, [Graham] Hill, and [Nigel] Mansell. We know we have a tremendous journey in front of us, we are honoured and cherished to be a part of history – we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts and we will do our best to return Lotus to its glory days.”
The T127 performed its first shakedown test earlier this week at Silverstone, with the team making an appearance alongside its rivals at the Jerez circuit next week for further development work.
Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will be representing Lotus F1 Racing this year, bringing valuable experience to the new outfit.
News articles on the Lotus F1 Racing. See the links for additional information:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81458
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8513511.stm
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/2/10434.html
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/02/12/lotus-t127-launched-in-london-pictures/
Lotus’s technical chief Mike Gascoyne says he is extremely proud of his team after it unveiled its new car in London.
The Lotus T127 was officially launched on Friday, culminating just a few months of very hard work from the team which gained an entry to race in Formula 1 later than the rest of the new squads.
Gascoyne admitted it was a very special moment for him and thanked team owner Tony Fernandes for his trust.
“The launch of the car is a very proud moment for the design team and the whole team,” said Gascoyne. “This one is very special for me personally for two reasons – firstly the Lotus name coming back into F1 is something very special.
“I grew up in Norfolk and went to school five miles down the road from the original factory. I grew up in era when Lotus was winning races and championships, so the opportunity to work with this team is very special. But also it is the challenge of bringing a new team and a new car into F1 in such a short space of time.
“What this is about for me, and it is the first launch I have been to where the whole team is here, there is a fantastic buzz about this place, the whole team has given their heart and soul to this project. I want to thank Tony on behalf of the whole team to have the courage to back us and trust us.
“We have a fantastic driver line-up who have put faith in the whole design team. I am proud to be up here on stage as a representative of that team, they have done a fantastic job.”
Italian Jarno Trulli, who was the first driver to be confirmed at Lotus, said he was fired up to tackle the challenge of making the team successful.
“It is a very emotional moment for me – it will be great to take Lotus back on track where Lotus belongs and I think we have a big challenge, but it is what we are aiming for. I am really fired up for it,” he said.
Trulli will be partnered by Heikki Kovalainen, who has joined Lotus after two years at McLaren.
Kovalainen said: “It has been a fantastic effort from the whole team and when I went to see Mike and Tony for the first time, there were four people at the reception, I said to them ‘Are you sure it will happen before Bahrain?’ And they said fine. I cannot wait until next week when we start driving it and get down to business.”
Source: Autosport.com
Heikki Kovalainen is confident his gamble on joining a new Formula 1 team by signing for Lotus will pay off, and insists he does not regret his decision.
Initial testing has highlighted the mountain that the start-up squads have to climb this year, with Virgin the only one of the four new teams ready for this week’s Jerez test and struggling to complete much mileage even though it had made it to Spain.
But despite turning down established teams to sign for Lotus, Kovalainen is still certain he has made the right choice.
“I had different options as well at the end of last year and some of those were with more established teams, but at the end I made the decision myself because I saw the most potential in this project,” he said at the launch of the new Lotus T127 in London tonight.
“Talking to Tony [Fernandes] and Mike [Gascoyne] convinced me and only the future will tell whether it was a good or bad decision but so far I have no regrets and so far it has been better than expected.”
The former McLaren driver said he had been impressed by everything he had seen at Lotus so far.
“Better than what I had expected,” Kovalainen replied when asked how Lotus compared to his expectations.
“We are a bit ahead of schedule in terms of the design and build of the car. How everything is shaping up at the factory as well has been better than I expected, it looks very good there as well.
“The actual operation side, in terms of everybody working at the factory, it looks normal to me compared to what I have been used to before because all the people that are in the team are current people. They are not people that have been away for two or three years. They are people from last year, people from some different teams that have just finished their notice period and come to our team.
“So that actually works very normal. It feels like a routine already for the boys, so that is also pretty convincing.”
He believes the new-look Lotus operation has the resources and ambition to become a success in F1.
“Tony is a very good businessman and he has a very impressive CV. For me the financial backing of the team looked convincing and that the money would be there to get the team going,” said Kovalainen.
“We can build a reasonable sized team, and I think eventually when everybody is on we are going to have 260 people – which is around the size of Sauber. That’s pretty good.
“We have a facility that is not quite ready yet but eventually we will be able to design and produce parts there. This is also for me a message that we could make decent progress during the year in terms of improving the performance of the car. Those two things were major points – then obviously having Mike at the head of the technical team was the third major point that I based my decision on.
“Like I said, so far no regrets and this team has a lot of potential to become a very professional and successful team – even in the medium term.”
And he added that he also felt he still had to show his true potential in F1 after frustrating stints with Renault and McLaren.
“I think the best races in my Formula 1 career are still ahead of me,” Kovalainen insisted. “That’s how I was determined not to go anywhere else but Formula 1.
“Even the last two years but all my time in F1 I have had difficult races but also I had good races, and I think here I will have the opportunity to produce good results and get more out of the team regularly, and that’s what I am working on.”
Interview with Kovalainen: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81475
Jarno Trulli has called for patience with the new Lotus Formula 1 team, as it prepares for to make its debut this year.
Speaking at the launch of the new car in London today, Trulli explained the challenges the team has already overcome to get to this point, and says his expectations for the year are modest.
“We have to be patient. For the first year we have to be reliable, decent and showing good progress. We cannot believe that we can join the club and be on top straight away – that is unrealistic,” Trulli said.
“This was a big achievement, being here, and getting the car ready for the shakedown a few days ago. We will be heading to Bahrain and we’ll try to make it to the finish with both cars.
“We want to start decent and then grow up. By the end of the season if we are fighting with the middle of the grid, it will be great.”
Lotus is scheduled to join the second pre-season test at Jerez next week. With such a short programme, Trulli is expecting to have to overcome problems along the way but is focused on scoring the team’s first point.
“We know it is not going to be easy and we are running out of time,” he said. “I have great respect for the people who have been working on this project, but on the other hand for this year we have to be very realistic. We know that we are heading to Bahrain to deal with a lot of troubles and solve the problems.
“The first point will be especially emotional for everyone. It is only a point, but it will be extremely appreciated however it comes. We have to take things step by step. I know I have to be patient and I know it is a long term project, as is my contract.”
Interview with Jarno Trulli can be read here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81471
Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne says he is sceptical about the chances of a team being successful in Formula 1 using only computer simulations to design its car.
On the back of a big focus on Virgin Racing’s difficult start to testing at Jerez in Spain this week, Gascoyne has joined design genius Adrian Newey in claiming that the use of wind tunnels remains vital in F1.
Virgin Racing’s new VR-01 is the first modern era F1 car to have been designed without the use of wind tunnel – with technical head Nick Wirth having just used Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Speaking about the CFD tactic, Gascoyne said: “I think it is an integral part, but it is not a complete part.”
When asked about his reaction to Newey’s comments, Gascoyne said: “Well, I think he is one of the best aerodynamicists in F1. I used to be an aerodynamicist, and my PhD was in CFD, and I think I would kind of agree with him.
“You look at BMW when Albert II was announced as one of the world’s biggest supercomputers dedicated just to their CFD. If you look at Enstone, they built their environmentally-friendly CFD centre with a huge computing resource. I don’t think these guys are idiots, and they also have wind tunnels.
“I know Bob Bell at Renault very well, he is a clever guy who gave me my first job in F1 and he is a trained aerodynamicist – and I think he thinks you need a wind tunnel. I think CFD is a very exciting technology and it is advancing, but is it an absolute? I don’t think there are many people who think it is.”
Interview with Gascoyne – http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81474
The success of the new Lotus outfit this season will depend on whether it can stick together as a team during its learning period, reckons chief Tony Fernandes.
With the outfit keeping its ambitions in check ahead of the start of the season, Fernandes thinks it vital that it remains unified during what could be difficult trials ahead.
“I think the key thing is that we really are a team, not a group of individuals, and the success of Lotus will be as a team,” said Fernandes at the launch of the new car.
“If you look at the way Heikki [Kovalainen], Fairuz [Fauzy] and Jarno [Trulli] work together, I think that is a much better approach than having two drivers trying to out do each other.
“They will use their energy to try and make the team a better team and I’d like to see them channel their positive energy. Of course they will be competitive, that’s the way they are, they wouldn’t be in F1 otherwise, but I think they will use that in a positive way to build a better team.”
Fernandes thinks it too early, and that he is not qualified enough, to make any firm predictions about the competitiveness of the new car. But the main thing he wants to see is progress over the next few years.
“Well I’m looking at the car and I can’t see what a good or bad car looks like,” he said. “That’s my not my expertise, that is in bringing in a group of people, giving them the right environment to work.
“I think that is one of the things that Mike and the team have said – they are enjoying being back in Formula 1. The power of giving the ability of someone to perform.
“Sometimes when you work in a corporate environment and everything is bureaucratic you don’t get the best out of people. That’s my ability, to bring a group of people together, give them the right environment to do their best. And then get Mike the best drivers.
“What are my expectations? I would just love to finish every race in the next year. If we can beat some of the new teams that would be a fantastic start. If we can beat some of the established teams towards the end of the season that would be great.
“As Heikki said this not a one-year project, we are not here to come last every year. We are here to build a proper team, build the right foundations, not have any aspirations but build quietly and confidently. But mark my words we will compete with the very best, over a period and I think we’ve shown our seriousness by signing three very good drivers.
“So the expectation this year is to try and build every race. Let’s learn a lot.”
Interview with Fernandes – http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81477
The first proper run with the T127 was a success according to the team. Run the Autosport.com story in full below:
The Lotus F1 team was thrilled to complete a trouble-free first day of official Formula 1 testing at Jerez on Wednesday (February 17).
Fairuz Fauzy was behind the wheel for the team’s first full test day and completed 76 laps and finished 11th quickest – 0.6s faster than fellow new team Virgin, which did just 10 laps.
Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne revealed that the team’s performance exceeded even their own expectations as it experienced no reliability problems at all.
“We had no real troubles,” Gascoyne told AUTOSPORT. “A couple of little temperature issues in the first couple of runs, which is to be expected. But in general reliability was excellent.
“We didn’t have power steering on, so when it dried out the loads were just too heavy to drive effectively. Apart from that it was an excellent day for the whole team, everything went better than we could have hoped.”
Gascoyne says the team believed it had produced a reliable car and that it now has a solid base from which to work on its speed.
“We knew the car went together very well and we weren’t concerned about its reliability,” he added. “But obviously you’ve got to run a car and see what happens. Really, we had no issues at all with the car and we now need to start working on performance and see how quick it is.
“We always said we wanted to put a good, solid car on the track and present and run it professionally, and I think today showed that we’ll be able to do that.”
The team’s power steering system was delayed but will arrive at Jerez tonight to be fitted for tomorrow’s running.
Fauzy was impressed after his first run in the car and is confident that there is a lot more time to come from the T127 tomorrow.
“We expected to have a bit of problems but none so far, there was no single failure at all,” Fauzy told AUTOSPORT. “Thank God the car is reliable, I was very impressed.
“The objective was to put some mileage on the car and for me to do laps for the superlicence test, and we managed to get through without any problems.
“I was very impressed with the car, it feels very balanced and there’s a lot of potential. I was a bit unlucky without the power steering, if it’s there I’m sure I can find another three or four seconds at least.”
Interview with Gascoyne – http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81560
Well I wish the Lotus Team all the luck in the world. However, apart from the fancy front wing, the rest of the car looks as old as the colour scheme! very square and basic, so not at all sure how it’ll cope on the track.
I see Mike Gascoyne is already having digs at his rival in the shape of Virgin. But dunno the rules and regs for this, but wind tunnel testing is time limited. Is the new computerised system virgin use got any limits on? If not then this could make a low budget team have a very useful advantage over it’s rivals. I’d keep quiet Mike before your eating your words!