Team Lotus T128 Renault

[conni]

saw this pic;



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

the centre section stays the same and they fit different outer sections as and when required

conni

[nipo]

You can find the lap times here:

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

Thanks very much for that link. I've written a spreadsheet to show the time differences of each lap and the average of the numbers, filtering out the pit laps. The summary is that Kovi was a full 2 seconds behind the leading teams, 1.4 behind Alonso, 0.9 behind Petrov, 0.38 behind Barrichello and around 2 seconds ahead of Virgin / HRT.

So I suppose, at this one race, they've almost caught up with Williams in terms of race pace. Also the fact is that Kovi did finish in front of a Sauber and a Williams.

Although "midfield" is quite a large group (separated by more than a second), maybe we can start including Lotus in it... =D> =D>

I remember last season they were consistently 2 seconds off the tail end of the midfield. Somehow it feels good to see them make progress like this - can't wait to see what the next round of upgrades can do to their car!

[nacho]

Kovalainen says they are concentrating on rear downforce with an upgrade for Barcelona. They still have reserve downforce on the front wing to take more rear downforce and still be able to balance it.

[sticky667]

i read something like .8/sec from the new blown "red bull style" diffuser.

Mike has been commenting on it since the start of the season

[ESPImperium]

I think that is a figure that is about right. The T128 has upgrades worth about 1.5 seconds coming at the next 2 GPs, whitch should see them right in the mid feild and making the drop zone in Q1 look less clear cut for P18, P19 and P20, unless Hispania find about 2 seconds in their car for those GPs as well.

Id recon that the T128 may see its development stopped fully after Belgum for the team to concentrate on the teams next car.

[marcush.]

you would stop your development only in case you have clearly seen your concept will not carry you any further.
If you realise that your basic concept is bang on the money you can develop more and carry over for next year..Why start all new every year-does not make sense to bin everything just because the season is over....I´d think they learn so much during the year that stoppage of anything is just the wrong approach.
My idea is :Race what you know and use the fridays to test.

[Javert]

From one point of view, 1.5 seconds gain would be one of the greatest gain in history from a race to the next.

From the other, 1.5 seconds gain would probably still not be enough to qualify for Q2, given the fact that also the other teams are gaining something from China to Turkey.

I'm sorry for them ... The project started with other purposes but it's just a little better than last year's one.

[Francesc]

I think that is a figure that is about right. The T128 has upgrades worth about 1.5 seconds coming at the next 2 GPs, whitch should see them right in the mid feild and making the drop zone in Q1 look less clear cut for P18, P19 and P20, unless Hispania find about 2 seconds in their car for those GPs as well.

But others will update too.

[beelsebob]

From one point of view, 1.5 seconds gain would be one of the greatest gain in history from a race to the next.

From the other, 1.5 seconds gain would probably still not be enough to qualify for Q2, given the fact that also the other teams are gaining something from China to Turkey.

I'm sorry for them ... The project started with other purposes but it's just a little better than last year's one.

You're stating that a car that was 4-5 seconds a lap off the back markers in 2010 and is 0.5 to 1 off the pace of them in 2011 is "little better than last year's"?

o.O

[Javert]

From one point of view, 1.5 seconds gain would be one of the greatest gain in history from a race to the next.

From the other, 1.5 seconds gain would probably still not be enough to qualify for Q2, given the fact that also the other teams are gaining something from China to Turkey.

I'm sorry for them ... The project started with other purposes but it's just a little better than last year's one.

You're stating that a car that was 4-5 seconds a lap off the back markers in 2010 and is 0.5 to 1 off the pace of them in 2011 is "little better than last year's"?

o.O

Regarding to qualifying pace they haven't done great steps

Race pace haven't been so meaningful 'til now, for example RB, McL, Merc and Ferrari has had similiar pace at the begin of the race. Teams did not understood how to use tyres

[PlatinumZealot]

The race pace is good. I think Lotus is in a good position considering the other teams have years of data to fall back on.

[bot6]

Completely agree with n_smilke here.

Considering how long the team has been there, being able to mix it up with the Williams is pretty amazing.

And I think the difference also comes from the confidence the drivers have in the car. I think it was Heikki who said it "feels like a proper F1 car" as opposed to last year's car. And that means the mechanical base is good, which means the team can concentrate on aero updates to bring pace instead of having to reinvent the wheel mid-season.

[beelsebob]

Yep, agreed with n_smikle too – the Lotus is a solid car, and I believe it has a decent amount of development left in it. Fingers crossed we can see TL get out of Q1 with at least one car in Turkey.

The only thing is it feels like Williams slipping back out of the mid field... But I guess in reality it's just the bunch joining up.

Hey, maybe we can see HRT up there too in a few months.

[marcush.]

Team lotus is not a bunch of amateurs or new to the business.these are all seasoned guys who have ccurrent up to date knowledge about F1 and so it´s nop wonder it now starts to fall in place.They were thee last to start their work (of the new teams) and decided to deveelop their own car...effectrively they used some aging designs and had them adapted to the current regs by some third party mainly.
so this years car has no carryover and shows the potential of the group build by Gascoyne.
Compare this with HRT -buying a chassis from Dallara built by homegrown engineers with no F1experience at all.
Compare this with Virgin doing it all with Wirth also without any current f1 pedigree..These two were of course going to struggle learning the ropes starting from zero..

[ESPImperium]

True, the T127 was effectivly a car to 2010 regs but stuck back circa 2004-2006 as it showed simmilarities with the Toyota Chassis arround that era (Gascgoyne Era Toyota BTW) and the engine and transmission, but more transmission was circa 2004 for the transmission and 2006 for the CA2010 it was a good car. Updated heavily early to early mid season with a stop point called early.

The T128 is a new breed, up to date and modren with all data channels open ready for the team to interprit and make best of for updates.

However, the T128 is light-years ahead of Virgin due to investment and the right direction from the right people in the right places. Even if Virgin had a few people with the right direction, with their resource and even just a day a week in a wind tunnel they would improve to the point they will be closing Team Lotus.

As for the Team Lotus to Hispania, they look like they have the investment now for a small but well formed technichal team, also a team with access to a wind tunnel now. They have ijvested in a up to date transmission and will soon make inroads to where Lotus are. Next year they should be attaching themselvs to the midfeild and leaving Virgin behind for the season, if Pat Symmonds dosnt come up with a good enough action plan for Virgin.

Team Lotus are deserving of a place in F1; Hispania, will prove to be good and show potential in about a 12-14 months time if they investment is there long enough; Virgin need to start following convention to a point, as thing arnt working, but they need to find whats not working first before improving amd modifying their menthods.