Lotus reveals early 2010 F1 car pictures
The first pictures of the 2010 F1 car designed by Lotus
Lotus has revealed the first pictures of its 2010 F1 car design.
The car shows the progress the team has made since it won the right to the final slot on the 2010 F1 grid following the withdrawal of BMW.
Last month Lola, which was not successful in its bid to compete in 2010, displayed model of a 2010-specification F1 car. The Lotus appears slighlty more sophisticated in its design, especially the front wing.
The most significant changes to F1 cars in 2010 will include narrower front tyres and larger fuel tanks, the latter due to the banning of refuelling.
Lotus 2010 F1 car wind tunnel model (click to enlarge)
Lotus 2010 F1 car wind tunnel model (click to enlarge)
Press release
Just one month after confirmation of its entry into the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, Lotus
F1 Racing is already heading into the windtunnel with a scale model of its first Formula 1 car. The as
yet undesignated model is the product of the recent collaboration between Lotus F1 Racing Chief
Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and the team’s technical partners, and represents an important step
in the team’s preparations for next season.
Interview with Mike Gascoyne – Lotus F1 Racing Chief Technical Officer
How important is the completion of Lotus F1 Racing’s first windtunnel model?
“The start of any windtunnel testing is an important step in the development of a new Formula 1 car, but it is particularly exciting for us as we continue preparations for our first season. It has been a very busy time since our entry was confirmed by the FIA. We had been working on the entry for several months so we already had aspects of the team infrastructure in place; the finances, the factory and the top management. Once our entry was confirmed in mid-September, we were able to accelerate our recruitment and car development process and this is really where we are at now.”
What precisely is the involvement from Malaysia?
“Our entry has only been made possible thanks to financing from the Malaysian private sector, so Lotus F1 Racing will be a Malaysian team through and through. Additionally we have valuable support from the Malaysian government through its 1Malaysia initiative, so we will essentially be flying the Malaysian flag in Formula 1. I am liaising with our Team Principal Tony Fernandes about our plans on a daily basis and am currently spending some time in Malaysia interviewing potential candidates for technical roles. The team is also in the process of recruiting Malaysian employees for other positions, including administration, marketing and PR.”
The team is currently based in the UK, but is there a long-term plan to move to Malaysia?
“The longer-term vision is to create a centre of technical excellence at the Sepang circuit which we have already started planning together with Tony Fernandes and his associates. Naturally this takes time, so we have opted initially for a UK base at the RTN facility in Hingham from where we will run the F1 operations while we establish our Malaysian facilities. Ultimately, the team will be headquartered in Malaysia, but we will keep a small UK base which will give us a logistical advantage when we are racing within Europe.”
What technical partnerships do you already have in place?
“We have been working with Fondtech to develop the aerodynamics, as well as with gearbox specialists Xtrac. We have an engine supply deal in place with Cosworth and we also have the support of engineering and composites teams in Malaysia who will play an integral role in developing the car.”
Is there really enough time to get a car and a team up and running before the first race in Bahrain?
“There is no escaping the challenges that we face simply to get the car ready for the first race of next season, 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 pre-season testing in preparation for Bahrain in mid-March.”
What are your expectations for the first year?
“We need to remain realistic in our aims for the first year. We are a new team and we are starting our development late, so it will be an achievement just to get two cars on the Bahrain grid. I hope by the middle of the season we will have established ourselves as the best of the rookie teams and then continue to make forward progress for the rest of the year.”
How integrated will the F1 team be with other Lotus groups?
“It is a big honour to be associated with such an historic and prestigious Formula 1 brand as Lotus for whom I have a lot of respect. We will have a close relationship with other Lotus groups and we will do all we can to ensure that the Lotus name is treated respectfully with our new team.”
Finally, has there been any decision made on drivers for next year?
“We have been looking closely at the driver market to determine our best options for next year including Malaysian drivers, but no decisions have been made yet. We need versatile drivers. We need reliable and technically-minded drivers who can help us develop the car during the season, but at the same time we need drivers who are hungry for results and who can extract every little bit of performance from the car at all times.”
Lotus
Looks nice, no stupid aero add ons.
The rear wing still looks ridiculous though.
But probably the “stupid” addons will be added later, like the sidepod panels. That front wing endplate also looks very simple.
The nose remembers Toyota’s one, specially due to the curved columns.
Lotus seem to be the best prepared of the 4 new teams. Considering they’ve only had a confirmed spot on the grid for a few weeks it’s quite a feat to have built a wind tunnel model already. We already know that Mike Gascoyne is a decent enough engineer, and it seems as though they have plenty of money behind them, so I predict they should comfortably be the best of the new teams in 2010.
Then again, mabye they’ll ‘do a Super Aguri’ and go for an all Malaysian dream team of Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy… in which case they’ll probably be at the back of the grid no matter how good their car is!
hello…did you live in a cave….alex will NOT be the driver…he’s 33 years old for god sake…he will be in the management team…
Whoah… calm down, I was joking
seskuj = Homer Simpson?
You mean narrower front tyres, not wings?
Sorry, yes, fixed
why have the f.i.a. Decided to use narrower front tyres? The cars are fine! Stop ruining them!
It’s ridiculous. The cars need more mechanical grip and less aero grip, the FIA are doing the complete wrong thing here, making them more dependent on aero grip than they already are.
the 2009 cars are unbalanced. the teams requested the narrower fronts.
but please, carry on about how you know more than the teams or fia.
All the teams have struggled this year because the move to slicks has increased the proportion of the grip that’s coming from the front tyres…
Making them narrower will move this balance more rearward, which is what the teams have requested and which Bridgestone have agreed to.
You are correct. However Bridgestone refused to make new moulds for a larger rear tire due to the expense. Straight line speeds will go up as well.
Guess they had moulds for the front or the cost is a lot less
what?? those pictures are 2 month old
Really? Where were they posted before today?
The press release with them in is dated today.
I think Goofy is thinking of the scale model pictures that were released a while back.
Maybe Lotus photoshopped the Lola scale model photos. The actual Lotus car is still in Gazza’s head
don’t be so ridiculous….just accept that lotus is in f1 a shut your fu*king mouth.
yeah i’m sure i’ve seen those photos before too. back when they were confirmed i think.
great to see lotus back.
the ‘jps’ lotus is my first f1 memory.
great times……………………..you can’t look back!
I see this going, going to the back of the grid. It’s not the real lotus either. Lotus is unfortunately gone. Proton motorcars, gimmie a break are we splitting atoms. What a joke.
Not only that but saying the lotus colors under a maylasian flag. Sorry, thats nothing but crap to me. I’m not english, but i’d be a bit angry if I were and they won a race in the 1 in tenbillion chance they would play the maylasian anthem to a lotus. Colin chapman is rolling in his grave.
I completely and utterly agree. It will never live up to the real lotus of the past.
I’m not really a partriot but Lotus was a British F1 team, driven by a talented British man.
You can’t take that and you can’t pretend you have the spirit of something you where never a part of. It’s ridiculous and wrong.
even the real team lotus back in its early 1990 is a back marker team…just a piece of crap. they just living in the history. You brit should thank to proton because they bought lotus if not…lotus name will be a history just like British leyland.
I’ve got two things to say
1) The spirit of Lotus died the day Colin Chapman died.
2) Lotus, as a team died in 1987, when Senna left them forever.
Yes, it would be sad to hear the Malaysian national anthem if lotus were to win, but it might never happen in the near future.
well proton does own lotus… and it is an malaysian team… tough love brits.. they are just using the brand and a spiritual successor to the real lotus team… anyway IF that team plays the english anthem a larger fit will happened in malaysia… dun forget The brits were their ex colonial masters… On the flip side i strongly doubt they will ever be in a position to claim a victory in their first season.
Is it more or is everyone looking forward to seeing what livery they do more?
I heard they were thinking about Green and yellow or even the JPS black and gold!
Yep, I’m way more interested in their livery. I’m sort of hoping they use that rainbow livery that they released a few weeks ago
LOL!
Yes I’m looking forward to seeing it, but please no not the rainbow, F1 is mad enough at times. Suppose at least it’ll be easy to spot…
how can that pass fia crash tests?
It’s not meant to. It’s a wind tunnel model.
Thanks captain obvious, I mean the nose cone looked proportionally really short compared to what we currently have.
Then why didn’t you say so??
Seriously, how was I meant to know what were you thinking with that pitiful post. Jesus!
To respond to your point about the nose – no it doesn’t. Please put your brain in gear & look before posting.
The toyota nose cone is shorter…
you fu*king idiot…i bet you never had any engineering background right?..this is scale down model for wind tunnel testing. just for aerodynamic testing. lotus is much better prepared team compare to manor who will do their aerodynamic test only in CFD..what a fu*king idiot…
Hey!! Why do you wanna abuse a fellow fanatic?
So much rage on the F1fanatic blog today!Calm down seskuj!
easy now…have a little respect.
the front tyres are on the wrong way round
Well spotted!
Haha, goes to show the competence we are dealing with here…
Oh dear….
I didn’t know they were reducing the size of the front tyres. That will cause trouble for overtaking: already overtaking is difficult because the wake of the cars destroys aero grip, if the tyres are narrower then there won’t be as much machanical grip either.
The fatter tires have more contact but,the narrower front tires should heat up faster.I think it is a trade off.Maybe there is too big a problem getting heat into the larger tires because of less mechanicl grip.
That grip is directly related to tyre width is one of the great myths of motorsport. Traction is largely derived from the weight and frictional coefficient of the tyre compound. What a narrower tyre will do though, as Wesley says, is alter the tyre dynamics such as how quickly it heats up. It will also affect wear rates, graining, etc. This should benefit cars that were having trouble getting heat into the tyres eg Brawn.
what livery will lotus use? I hope black and gold, hopfully no malaysian flag colors
GO GO LOTUS!
Anyone know if the wheel width is reducing as well of just having an even more inclined sidewall?
Also, the small barge boards hung from the underside of the chassis just behind the nose section. Is that a unique feature?
They move quickly.
I’m willing to bet the designs came from a plan Gascyne had aid out back when he was spear-heading the Litespeed Lotus effort.
I can’t believe they’re reducing mechanical grip again. I thought the overtaking issue was a result of too little mechanical grip and too much aerodynamic grip.
This years cars are very imbalanced, from a mechanical grip point of view. To counteract the pronounced rearward weight bias they are increasing the rearward traction bias via smaller front tires. The idea is to make the cars more balanced and more forgiving to drive. Its the same thing that manufacturers do with mid or rear-engined road cars. But you are right about the whole mechanical vs aero grip thing. I think it would have been much better to widen the rear tires instead of narrowing the front, thus improving balance and overall mechanical grip.
Although I applaud them for showing us SOMETHING before the other new teams, it still looks incredibly unsophisticated compared to the cars on the grid now. Theyve got a long way to go. Lets hope they dont tarnish the great lotus reputation!
I love seeing images like this, and I wish the other newbies would do the same.
http://originalgaijin.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/30.jpg
found this
That wasn’t the Lotus 2010 model. That was actually the Lola 2010 entry half-scaled model. They did not succeed in getting into F1 and hoping for some 2011 instead.
Dingle Dell is right there.
It’s interesting to see that the early Lotus design is shaping up to be a clone of the Toyota, and the half scale model Lola produced was shaping up to be a Red Bull clone…
First of all, really ugly design of a 2010 car. Bad upright and straight nosecone. How I miss those days of the last it was in 1994 when the nosecone actually attached to the front wing.
Secondly, isn’t that these cars would be much wider for 2010? Since there will be no refuelling for next year, I presume the cars would be wider and have a rounder engine cover like the late 80s to early 90s instead of a sharp fin-looking end?
What’s disturbing me the most are the emptiness below the entire nose and the centre of the front wing. They make these cars these day very naked and more like a joke to me.
Why can’t they just cover up that space with a bigger and fatter nose of the past and the front wing attached to the nose? Eeeww…
Besides that, I wonder what paintjob will they have for next year. Please don’t dump in the rainbow scheme or the Malaysian flag scheme. That would be a complete laughing matter. I suppose the technical side, under the hands of Mr. Mike Gascoyne (as of his days at Renault, Toyota, Jordan etc), I can’t see this team progressing very well up the ladders.
In addition to that, if a Malaysian driver like Fairuz Fauzy or even the Formula BMW won-it-lucky guy Jazelan Jaafar to be given a seat at Lotus, I would say the days of Lotus to make a name back in F1 would be very dim and numbered.
Why can’t they get a car designed to look decent enough with the front end and the back end and everything? Pityful, bring back the golden days of F1 in modern era of 1985 till at least 1997! Therefore, we need ARI VATANEN instead of that Yoda-ish JEAN TODT!
raise nose cone was the superior design you dumb ass…no one want the lower nose cone configuration any more…raise nose cone help flow the air efficiently…one more thing…it is JAZEMAN JAAFAR…not JAZELAN…big stupid airhead bimbo…
Hey! stop this abusive language. If you’ve got something useful to say, please do so in a decent manner.
Are you like, a six year old?
Yeah, he accused me of ‘living in a cave’. Pr!ck
Dude, you need to chill, seriously.
Have a look at the readers of this site’s comments on other articles. If you think someone is wrong, provide a reasoned factual argument to prove your point.
You really don’t have to swear. It’s getting a bit much now.
The cars are getting longer to accommodate the increased tank size. They’re already at the maximum width under the rules.
The nose is like that because it’s the most aerodynamically efficient.
I’m amused you think they should design a car just so it’s looks good on the grid.
& to all of you who are only concerned about the livery – what a bunch of big girls blouses
Compare THIS with THIS.
The former was prettier,elegant,proportional & most importantly faster. these 2009 spec cars are a joke. but we, the fans don’t have a choice, do we?
That car used to look great with the horns, and Speed Demon Kimi behind the wheel!
love to see f1 car look like A1 car….less aerodynamic stuff but still sexy…YEAH!!!!
With using a historical brand in such a cynical way, i hope they fail.