New rear wing for Lotus E21

Lotus has had quite a busy schedule recently, and today the team came up with a new rear wing, tested both by Davide Valsecchi in the morning and Romain Grosjean in the afternoon. The new wing appears to be based on the rear wing that the team has already used when running without DRD, as the DRS actuator pod is the same and the wing's main profile also looks similar. The monkey seat however has been changed in a more traditional winglet, contrary to the curved version that existed on the previous wing. The curved monkey seat had been introduced during 2012 when the team also introduced DRD, so it remains to be seen if the DRD outlet will be modified, or if this wing is not designed to be used with DRD.

With its flowviz testing however the team was most interested in airflow around the endplates, as these have also been modified. The 3 strakes on the outside of the endplate were removed whereas underneath the endplate 3 vanes were added to help guide air into the wake of the rear tyres. Extracting air from underneath the rear wing like this can help generate downforce but it needs to comply with the airflow that the diffuser is throwing up as well. Most teams by now are using similar designs, but most have more and smaller vanes to achieve the same purpose.