Lotus has shown off the first official images of its new 2010 Formula One car.
The team’s first wind tunnel model team has been completed, but Lotus’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne admitted that despite the model’s completion being a great achievement, there was still plenty of work to do before it gets to the grid.
See the hi-res 2010 Lotus F1 car pics
Lotus has developed a car that follows the revised 2010 rules (chiefly narrower front tyres and larger fuel tanks due to the banning of refuelling).
“There is no escaping the challenges that we face simply to get the car ready for the first race of the next season,” said Gascoyne. “But I am confident that we are up to the task in hand.
“Our target is to get the car ready for a roll out by the middle of February so that we can carry out preseason testing in preparation for Bahrain in mid-March.”
Decisions about drivers for next year are yet to be made, but it is understood that experienced Toyota driver Jarno Trulli is favourite to lead the team.
The drivers Gascoyne is looking for need to help develop the car during the season, as well as “extract every little bit of performance from the car at all times”, in order for the team to make progress on the track.
Jennie Aitken
Twitter - follow autocar.co.ukSee all the latest Lotus reviews, news and video
Join the debate
Add your comment
Re: Lotus shows pics of new F1 car
Re: Lotus shows pics of new F1 car
Yes, the Force India has gone well, but at low downforce / high speed tracks, yes, Loeb may well improve but he's a bit late for F1, maybe he should try Le-mans series,some rally drivers did quite well at it, i seem to remember that Colin Mccrae did well at the hands of a Ferrari LM.
Re: Lotus shows pics of new F1 car
I'd have agreed with you until a few days ago about Button but I heard an interesting view the other day on the radio in Australia.
It's this, had Button scored the points he was scoring now at the beginning of the season and was winning the races he won at the beginning of the season now, we'd all be going mad and urging him on. It's a fair point.
He's achieving his goal by hook or crook, surely that's the point.
We've had Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Harry Hill, what about Benny? Who is this great Hill alluded to earlier?