Team Lotus T128 Renault

[willga]

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

Not really - quite a few teams design their nosecones somewhat blunter for crash-structure characteristics and ease of composite lay-up (its harder to lay-up pre-preg at the bottom of dark, pointy holes, and harder to get honeycomb core into sharp corners).
The narrow taper of the finished component is achieved by bonding a second, non structural piece onto the end of this blunt nose.

[awizul]

MG mentioned that somewhere by Turkey or Barcelona they are going to have Red Bull like blown diffuser, how much gain T128 could get then?

[ESPImperium]

Barcelona will see a new floor and RB style exhaust.

Id recon that will be the big area for them, giving much more rear end downforce. Id also expect as many as 10 things to have upgrades put to them for Barcelona.

[andrew]

If they are the only team with an upgrade like this then things will in all liklihood stay the same relative to their competetors, however if they are the only ones to have such a big upgrade as this then it will be a huge benefit.

I am going to be as bold to suggest that Mercedes need to watch out for Lotus and Branson will be dressing up like a stewardess ... again (becoming a bit of a habit).

[awizul]

Turun Sanomat said the T128 car will have a new diffuser and exhaust for May’s Spanish grand prix, delivering up to 8 tenths per lap

[-o<

Full story http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Kova ... 21543.html

[f1motta]

T128 wheel nut details http://www.f1talks.pl/?p=7459&pid=1301

[zgred]

[FW17]

looks like 0.8 sec behind in qualifying pace to the midfield runners. Race pace may be closer.

Lotus needs to get more aggressive in their development to bridge this gap in the next few races. Wonder if their weakness is one single area or over all?

[wesley123]

saw this pic;



Look at how the wing part is detached, the central part is perfectly intact, flexi wing gone wrong?

[Owen.C93]

Probably just a wing gone wrong.

[NormalChris]

Id be great to see a shot from the other side to see what the main element profile looks like.

[ESPImperium]

looks like 0.8 sec behind in qualifying pace to the midfield runners. Race pace may be closer.

Lotus needs to get more aggressive in their development to bridge this gap in the next few races. Wonder if their weakness is one single area or over all?

The T128 probably has a few weaknesses all over, and thats whate hampering them. I belive they will get aggressive from Turkey onward as theese 3 races have been about understanding the Renault RS27-2011 power plant and the Red Bull 2009 gearbox as well, so id expect them to gain gob loads of time from understanding this package from Europe onward as well.

Im thinking this car has another 1.5 to 2.2 seconds left in it in terms of raw pace, but think its probably quicker in race pace overall.

[nipo]

Tried this in the main Chinese GP thread but got no response...

Kovalainen finished ahead of a Sauber and a Williams; Trulli's fastest lap was quicker than Alonso's - have they made that magical leap forwards? Have they caught up with the midfield? Or was it a mixture of good strategy and luck?

Fact is, as the team correctly pointed out, they were only lapped once towards the end of the race. Sounds like a big improvement. I'm kinda happy for them if they have really achieved this goal so early on in the season.

Anyone got a list of lap times to compare Lotus with the tail end of the midfield?

[volarchico]

You can find the lap times here:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... istory.pdf

[eniQma]

one technical question

what is the main problem about T128 tyres/tires temperature? what is the possible answer for that?, is that about chassis, aero, tire itself or something else?
what I saw is T128, was the only one suffered with that problem?(other Team may have the same problem but not so serious like T128)