Team Lotus T128 Renault

[ringo]

It's the tyres and setup, not the car.
Massa seem to be having the same problem Lotus is. Both need more direction in setting up the car and understanding the tyres.

I think they can be much faster if the car holds the road a bit better.

[mycadcae]

Heikki Kovalainen car water leak problem..

[Formula None]

[LoudHoward]

Hrm well that wasn't too good, really wanted to see this team mixing it up in the midfield. Hopefully they can find some speed but they need a pretty massive step from somewhere.

[nacho]

Like someone noted those front suspension rods look very elegant (fragile).

[timbo]

Does anybody think that the way nosecone is damaged look somewhat strange?
Like it has structural element inside with a skin on the outside?

[Hangaku]

Does anybody think that the way nosecone is damaged look somewhat strange?
Like it has structural element inside with a skin on the outside?

As if to say, for example, that perhaps the nose cone contains some sort of material that might assist flexing under load?

[Fil]

Took this photo post-race. Amazed at the severity of the sidepod's undercut.

[bot6]

That big bumpy profile at the front of the floor looks a lot like Renault's.

Could Lotus be cooking up a FEE for later races?

[nacho]

They changed the nosecone shape to a longer and pointier one, the shape which is obviously just a thin shell above the structural part of the nose

[FW17]

A very crude way of reducing the duct size for the brakes (duct tape used). They could have designed some aerodynamic capping such as a jet engine


Jet engines used a spike that allowed for variable air volume into the engine

[Owen.C93]

All teams use tape, it's just that much easier to tear off in the pits if the brakes are getting hot in the race.

[gridwalker]

One minor (O/T) point about WilliamsF1's suggestion for adding an inlet cone to the break duct : the inlet cone on jet engines is primarily used for slowing down the speed of the air drawn into the engine when travelling at supersonic speeds, as the engines would otherwise be unable to ignite the fuel.

Although the inlet cone can be (and is) used to adjust the amount of air being drawn into an engine, there are simpler methods of achieving this effect and this design would not be used if it was solely being used as a means of regulating the intake volume. The high frontal area to inlet size ratio makes this design more prone to drag than simpler inlet restrictors, however this drag serves a purpose by reducing air speed within the combustion chamber. It would not be logical to fit such a device to a break duct when it would be lighter and more aerodynamic to simply change the size of the ducting.

A piece of tape over half of the duct is probably much more efficient than an inlet cone for this purpose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inlet_cone

[sticky667]

Tough luck for TM and Karun especially this weekend. They've had the water leak niggles since testing but elected to hold off on the upgrades for weekend. They were scheduled to have a large update package for Malaysia from the outset so we should see them move further ahead and cure some of the issues the car is currently experiencing.

I believe it's more of a production timeline deficiency with getting the upgrades produced, packaged and shipped off to Malaysia.

[Tim.Wright]

A piece of tape over half of the duct is probably much more efficient than an inlet cone for this purpose.

Tape like that is never ideal, but its a last resort when there is not enough temperature in the brakes and you only have 5min to fix the problem.

Tim