Lotus E22: First pictures

2014 F1 cars

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Here are the first pictures of Lotus’s new contender, the E22, which features a double-pronged nose.

Lotus issued the images via its Twitter account after McLaren revealed its MP4-29.

No further information was issued about the new car, which is expected to make its first track appearance at the second pre-season test at Bahrain on February 19th. It bears the logos of PDVSA, who back new driver Pastor Maldonado, and new sponsor Yotaphone.

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    150 comments on “Lotus E22: First pictures”

    1. When one isn’t enough :’)

      1. ha ha!!

      2. Still, at least it’s different :P

      3. :DDDDDDD perfect

      4. Why are they of different length…

        1. Just the angle of the picture.

            1. @keithcollantine

              Is it possible they really have 2 noses of different length to suite the rules?

              The long one is there to fit the rules while the other one is shorter to not be considered as a nose and thus reducing the official area of the nose.

            2. @keithcollantine
              Are cars now being designed as male and female? Because McLaren could be perfectly inserted into Lotus by that nose device.
              And on the more serious side, could it be that it has something to do with clockwise and anti-clockwise tracks?

            3. @dujedcv that crossed my mind too, but it makes little sense, as the effect would be minimal, or?

              I think it is more likely to be a bit of a stunt to get some good ole cheap talk of the town – it seems like they need everything they can get these days.

        2. @ScarbsF1 said on Twitter that “The two tusks are unequal lengths, longer one forms the 9000mm2 tip, the other is also a crash strcuture, both act as Y250 flow conditioners”. I believe that he is more of an expert than me.

          1. Im guessing its longer to comply with cross cut regs.

        3. Lotus have calculated there are more left handers and the new nose will be faster in those…
          ;-)

        4. The nose is curious, but if the actual nose weren’t so short and the two bits were the same length it’d remind me of the 2004 Williams and actually look menacing and better.

          1. The epic Walrus, definitely!

      5. Interesting rear wing.. no pillar for support, and what looks like bodywork to aim the exhaust out the back..

      6. I wouldn’t want to be the pit crew that has to stand in front of that car, the potential for ruined shins is massive especially with Maldonardo in the drivers seat.

        1. Maldonado and Grosjean .. with these twin tuskers !
          Pit lane is not so safe is it …

      7. They trolled McLaren perfectly. :)

      8. I am pretty sure this a fake photo. The blacks don’t match on the nose and one pillar is too short. I am pretty sure this is an E21 with a shopped nose.

        1. @bertie, this is a render.

        2. @bertie It’s a render from their official site.

        3. … with an exaggerated FOV.

        4. @bertie

          I agree, I don’t think this is the real E22.

      9. The Blade Runner (@)
        24th January 2014, 14:31

        The nose looks like either some tweezers or a dead pelican! Maybe even a tuning fork…

        Anyway, interesting to see the various interpretations of the new rules. In a year’s time they’ll all probably look the same. I’m not sure what the Lotus will look like head-on. A bit like a rampaging, toothless yokel maybe?

        1. Lol – the dead pelican would an awesome name for the car.

          1. @daved came up with the camel toe – much better lol

      10. Im sure the nose is modelled on this –

        Who said F1 is the pinnacle of engineering ?!?

      11. this kinda makes me wanna see a head on between a Lotus and McLaren now….

    2. What a nose!

      1. FIA needs a new rule: Best Nose Gets 25 points for WCC…

        1. Nice :D

      2. @mike-dee Its less offensive than the McLaren.

        Also the prongs are the same colour as the front wing so they’re less obtrusive

    3. A much better nose!

    4. This actually looks pretty cool, hopefully it actually works and shows up on the grid

    5. Yes! Variety! How we’ve missed you…

    6. Thought they might have done something more with the livery, but oh well.

      1. Steph (@stephanief1990)
        24th January 2014, 12:35

        I think the livery is gorgeous (I love Mclaren’s too) but it’s like there’s a competition to see who can design the most ugly nose. I actually feel bad I ever complained about the noses from last year, they were beautiful compared to this.

    7. Interesting nose design….

      1. And at least one new sponsor, can’t be a bad thing…

        1. The Galactic Empire, apparently

    8. Williams Walrus 10th anniversary evolution edition!?

        1. Ha! That was my first thought!

      1. The walrus was a lot better in my opinion…

      2. I’m kind of thinking “the Lotus camel-toe”. LOL

    9. looks like something from robot wars !! I like it :)

    10. petebaldwin (@)
      24th January 2014, 12:04

      ummmm… ok well I don’t hate it. Actually that looks a LOT better than the others so far…. I think..

    11. Its a shame they couldn’t have a bar at the end of the two forks, that would have made it look nice.

    12. A much better nose! still allows airflow, and “Fork nose” is much better than “Penis nose”

    13. Variety! Not being sarcastic, I love the fact there are different solutions! Looks good to me.

    14. best looking car so far, will be keen to see it in the flesh and not a rendering

    15. petebaldwin (@)
      24th January 2014, 12:07

      Hang on a sec – those 2 bits on the nose aren’t the same length. The right hand side is longer!? Surely just down to a CAD mistake?

      1. I was thinking that. It’s surely a mistake!?

          1. I’ve read the Autosport article which clears that up.
            Thank you for your input.

            1. petebaldwin (@)
              25th January 2014, 22:30

              To clear it up for anyone who hasn’t read the info yet: http://scarbsf1.com/blog1/2014/01/25/analysis-lotus-e22-twin-tusk-nose/

              Basically, it’s against the regs to have 2 tips so to get around this, Lotus have made one shorter thus technically, only having one tip. If they are quick in Jerez, there will be protests. No doubt.

    16. I like the livery, nice one there Lotus. And at least they have tried to make the nose look good, it reminds me somewhat of the “Walrus nose” that Williams once had on their car.

      1. Someone said in the last month that Lotus was looking at the walrus nose… I wonder how they knew that and I also wondered how it would work. Now I know.

    17. Are… are those two sections of the double nose not the same length?!

      1. well it’s not a real car, and you can’t rely on the 3D artists at Lotus to have the money to finish the model ;)

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        24th January 2014, 12:10

        Yeah i noticed that – must just be down to a bad drawing. There would be no benefit on them not being the same length unless you were racing round ovals.

        1. Everyone’s an expert..

      3. I think the one of the tops needs to be more than 50 mm behind the other to meet regulations.

        1. Yup, now the right tip is regarded as the main crash structure and a cross section slice would be unbroken, per the regs.

      4. The person setting up the render has gone a bit overboard with the lens settings on the virtual camera and has caused a ‘fish-eye’ effect. The most noticeable distortion to the object is always at the closest point to the camera lens – in this case the front right corner.

        1. Not the case, as the wing below the nose isn’t distorted at all.

          I suspect that actually, since the rules specify that you can only have one nose, one prong protrudes further than the other one so that it can be classified as the ‘nose’ while the other prong is just.. another bit of bodywork. Otherwise technically this would breach the rules.

          1. My mistake – it is exactly as ungainly as it appears to be. :)

        2. Mclaren probably had snatched him before he could complete the the image.

      5. They didn’t have the money to make the left one the same length as the other.

        1. Which is strange because usually the left one is the one that hangs a little longer…. haha

    18. Central pillar on the rear wing, or lighting effect on the inside of endplate?
      Also, I can’t see the exhaust..

    19. I’m liking this and really enjoying the regulation change thus far. It really shows a team’s ingenuity when given a set of specification and everyone comes out with a different results.

      Let’s hope they work on track

      1. The Blade Runner (@)
        24th January 2014, 14:28

        Hey, if the Lotus had a head-on with the McLaren then maybe we’d get lots of little go-karts a few months later!

        1. The Blade Runner (@)
          24th January 2014, 14:45

          Ha, looks like someone beat me to it HERE

        2. lol ! looks like weve got our first “female” car of 2014 in the lotus !

    20. I hereby dub this the “barbecue fork”.

    21. To me the nose looks broken and i think the car design is quite lazy, it’s the same from 2013. At least change it little bit.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        24th January 2014, 12:20

        Their car isn’t even ready for the upcoming test so I imagine this drawing is literally just to show off their nose in the hope that people will think “ah – an F1 car that isn’t as ugly as sin! Maybe we’ll sponsor them instead”

        I doubt the remaining 99% of the car is much to do with this year’s design.

    22. Sexy beast :D

    23. LESS RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    24. I wondered if anybody would go for putting the low point on either side and funnelling the air directly under the middle of the nose, rather than have the air negotiate the wang section.

    25. petebaldwin (@)
      24th January 2014, 12:18

      The more I think about this solution (the nose), the more this makes sense. Surely it would direct more air under than with the McLaren/Williams nose?

      Is it too late for the rest to go for one of these or is it too much part of the crash structure to be changed now?

      1. I don’t know. On the McLaren the front wing supports look fairly wide, so in terms of frontal area which is open and leads under the wing, McLaren might have the same or greater.

    26. kill it before it breeds

    27. I also like the livery. Last year it moved far enough away from JPS for me to no longer be offended by it, either as a cynical marketing gimmick or poor relation to the originals. I think this just looks a little smarter than last year.

    28. I’m afraid it’s not befitting Romain’s and Pastor’s driving style at all. They’ll get tangled into other cars’ rear ends
      from day one! And good luck extracting their car now!

    29. I’m a little concerned about safety: ramming a car with such a pointy ‘fork’ nose could be really dangerous no (especially with Maldonado behind the wheel)?

      This isn’t the first time I wee a forked nose by the way, remember the Audi R15?

      1. Jut for the benefit of anybody else, that was the Plus version. The original car had more of a platypus nose.

      2. @paeschli
        It’s pointy, but it’s low and it’s not sharp, nor strong. Any piece of structural or protective bodywork on any car would crumble those fork ends with ease. I don’t think we need to worry.

    30. a single external cross section of more than 9000mm²

      ScarbsF1 posted this on twitter already, but I thought the same thing after reading the regulations: Is this a legal nose?

      1. @gdewilde

        I was thinking the same thing, but what if only one of those 2 struts is the crash structure, and the other one is just a vanity panel / frontwing-support …..?

        1. @melkurion Or they could be joined in the middle making the fingers a single section.

          1. @mantresx

            Interesting idea, but I don’t think so, bcs that would defeat the purpose of splitting it. If you connect them, the single section would have to run up to the bulkhead per regulations. Thus not enabling airflow between the forks to the underside of the nose.

    31. The real question is whether the front is ‘compatible’ with the Williams or McLaren. Looks like they can mate.

    32. Looks a bit like the Williams FW26 nose 2004

    33. Alot of you folks are having a laugh and dramatizing the new cars looks, in my view they are not that nice but no horrible either the step nose trend was far worse and looking at other areas of the car the low front end ends up working fine to me I thought I wasn’t going to like it, what I definitely don’t like is the same thing ever since 2009, the front and rear wing ratio the extreme length of the cars since 2010 and the plain smooth overall look of the other areas of the car in many ways featureless which leads to claims that the cars are getting all alike as other rules contribute further to that oddly enough the more restricting rules are the ones that produce more innovative thinking as seen in this Lotus, the car from this angle looks tighter than any of the yet released but more predominately it sports as of now a cool interpretation of the nose which it shouldn’t surprise much as Lotus engineers always have had fun with extreme designs as for example the front facing exhausts the DDRS W shaped rear wing etc.

    34. Compensating for something, Lotus?

    35. I think they’re taking the mickey out if the McLaren…

    36. David not Coulthard (@)
      24th January 2014, 12:50

      aaahhh, much better, I guess Lotus knows how they’d struggle to pay the fees for baby cars if their cars were able to reproduce (oops, sorry!).

    37. AWESOME!!!!

      Where is the Microsoft and Total Sponsership though?????? I thought Total was Grosjean’s main backer….?

      1. David not Coulthard (@)
        24th January 2014, 12:54

        Microsoft

        I’d certainly like to see Red Hat (or, even better, the Free Software Foundation) on there.

        OK, I do realise that it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

      2. Agree, where is the Total branding?

    38. David not Coulthard (@)
      24th January 2014, 12:51

      …Anyway they didn’t go with the Gold-Leaf-plus-Black-front-wing livery, did they?

    39. Whatever about the nose. That’s an odd looking backend too. It just kinda disappears after the air intake. I think all these teams are playing it very cagey until they hit the testing track. Understandably so, I suppose.

    40. Nice to see cars that do not look alike

    41. After seeing the E22, I’m curious to see what Newey will come up with. A trident maybe?

      1. @toiago
        Or maybe he dusts off the old Williams FW14 and installs a turbo whistle in the exhaust to fool the FIA.

    42. Classic news management. “Don’t look at that…look at this!”

    43. Wow was that design inspired by Eddie Jordan. That’s quite a camel hoof!

    44. Also, who’s Yotaphone. Looks like the sort of sponsor you might see on an unofficial model of a McLaren.

    45. UH-OH……cameltoe?! (Im sorry, it has to be said)

      1. I said the same thing earlier, but nobody else seems to see it but us???

    46. I knew Grosjean and Maldonado like to crash into cars but Lotus didn’t have to make them a forklift to clean up the mess.

    47. With the teams coming up with some great ideas for their car designs, plus the new engines should make for some brillant first few races. I cant wait!

    48. Congrats Mrs Force-India, Mrs Williams & Mrs McLaren you’ve all had boys. Mrs Lotus, it appears you’ve had a girl.

    49. this year, you can see much of the noticeable differences in all cars bodywork and i think that is incredible..

    50. This year noses will come like USB – with “male” and “female” configuration.

    51. McLaren is male while Lotus is female.. They fit!

    52. I’m waiting for Ferrari or someone to reveal their car with a trident as their nose.
      I’d imagine that car would be good in rainy conditions, as it would be the king of the seas.

      1. Sadly, a trident nose doesn’t give any benefits :P

        This is by far one of the most interesting workarounds I’ve seen so far, making your car asymmetrical :P

    53. the nose of the e 22=a slot piece for the mclaren and williams

    54. Methinks the went the tusked route knowing at least Maldonado would be up the tailpipe of a few competitors this season and were looking to avoid the inevitable PR fallout.

    55. Nose design (and plug):
      McLaren: Male
      Lotus: Female

    56. Nice solution. Now we wait to see if it works.

    57. Lotus decided that Maldonado didnt break enough front noses last year, so they gave it 2, but seriously what a beautiful forklift

    58. If it races in Melbourne like that, I’ll eat the hat I don’t normally wear (thanks Murray!)
      Surely it’s another “launch nose” – a rendered picture, released just as McLaren launched theirs, smells of more attention-seeking by those wacky, crazy Lotus PR clowns.

      Credit where it’s due though, I liked their picture of Eric Boullier’s leaving gift (earlier on Twitter). Good work.

    59. Lotus seems a bit like a jealous ex girlfriend for releasing this 2 minutes after McLaren launched their car, especially unannounced.

      That being said, the first time I saw it I thought the front end looked like a FR3.5 car a bit, apart from the double nose thing.

    60. So I’ve had a look at the released shots of the new generation F1 cars. We have penis nosed and camel toe nosed cars. Maldonado is driving one of the camel toe cars. Can we see where this is going?

    61. Having read the Autosport article it is now clear why one side of the nose is longer than the other. The noses we’ve seen so far may not be the prettiest things we’ve ever seen, but they are NOT as bad as the stepped nose of 2012, thus far.

      One thing I noticed is that there’s no Total branding. Surely Grosjean is still backed by them, or have they put all their eggs into the Red Bull basket? And there’s no Saxo Bank branding either but that was only recently announced. I’m sure liveries (including add sponsors) and designs will be evolving as testing goes on.

    62. This just gives Grosjean a backup nose so he won’t have to pit after the 1st one is destroyed on his opening lap.(maybe that was more appropriate a couple of seasons ago but,I couldn’t resist)

    63. Wonder if they will switch which side has the longer tusk depending on if there are more left or right hand turns at a particular track?

    64. YES! Black with gold. Red doesn’t even look that bad!

    65. What the fork?

    66. To don’t see TOTAL on that car. All the places where total was present on E21 were replaced by PDVSA. Did total leave RoGro?

    67. The worst design so far. Horrible looking. Like a broken nose. Much prefer the mclaren. No idea what the people are seeing here. God my eyes hurt.

    68. A pickle fork?

    69. It would be very awkward if McLaren and Lotus collide nose to nose.

    70. I think the man on the Clapham Omnibus would say, “it has two tips” I will be amazed if it flies at the first race .

    71. Not a camel toe or tuning fork: it’s a shark! http://www.oceanicresearch.org/jpegs/jbird_shark_claspers.jpg

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