05/02/2012
NEWS STORY
 |
The Lotus F1 team has unveiled its 2012 contender, the E20, at its Enstone HQ after which it is named.
The team which started out at Toleman, became Benetton and then Renault, having finished fifth in the 2011 Constructors' Championship, despite losing ground in the second half of the season is seeking to take a major step forward this year with a new name and all new line-up.
"2012 is very welcome after a poor 2011 and very hectic year," said team boss Eric Boullier. "It's clear we've maintained our ambition on track and we want to carry on the full restructuring, progress and change that we started one year ago. We now have a clear target. We know that we have a strong commitment from our shareholders, that we want to be a top team and seen as a top team. 2012 will be the year of our final adjustment to be ready and fully operational from 2013 with an ambitious plan. For 2012 we expect to be in a position to fight for fourth place for the championship."
"We've worked hard and long on the car," said technical director, James Allison. "We have tried to react to the regulatory picture as it's unfolded, but we will only really start to be able to judge how well we have done once we start to run the car in pre-season. Even then we won't really know until qualifying in Melbourne."
Referring to the regulation changes this season, he said: "If you casually flicked through the regulations you'd be forgiven for thinking that there aren't many differences from last year, however nestling in there are some fairly profound changes. The most notable changes relate to the exhaust. The teams decided around Silverstone in 2011 that we were going to get rid of exhaust blown rear diffusers, and that point alone requires a very different design concept.
"Recent car designs have been heavily influenced by their rear exhaust configurations, and the intent of the rule is to stop that happening," he continued. "The rules on the exhaust geometries themselves have been reinforced by some engine operation rules which don't sit in the technical regulations, but which arrived by Technical Directive quite late last year. The exhaust issue, although agreed in principle at Silverstone, continued to unfold as late as mid-November, so the challenge has been to roll with the punches as the detail emerged over a fairly extended period - trying to make the best of each version of the rules as they've come out, whilst trying to anticipate where the end position is going to be. It's certainly been an area which has preoccupied us and I imagine the rest of the grid too."
Check out our gallery, here.