Team Lotus T128 Renault

[ESPImperium]

Just a question- was HRT's new business model to have no money at all?
:P

Posibly. But Adrian Campos said before his team was taken over by the Carbonate family that their buisness model was always to buy a chassis, engine and gearbox as a customer on all areas and more or less race a F1 kit car. To a point it worked, but not with his name on it, or with any updates.

Isn´t Toro rosso also using fondtech ? the migeot double decker sidepods certainly hint in that direction.
Maybe a move to forge new alliances and get a better separation to competitors

I think the big F1 teams face a big problem with their tunnels .The RRA forces them to cut down on tunnel time and human recources and on the other hand who could ever go as far as renting out a full blown up to date F1 tunnel -and not be F1? the candidates are few ..maybe Audi or some works sportscar team but then already the air gets thin...

Audi now have the most advanced wind tunnel in motorsport with full rolling road that can rotate a full 360 degree axis to replicate the car whilse cornering or with tail winds, plus it has a atmospheric system that can run the car in -25C to +55C. It is featured in this months Racecar Engineering mag.

I can see the F1 guys now pooling wind tunnel resources, as it will probably be cheaper, and just strengthens the air of co-operation in the sport, whitch will ultimatly make it stronger in the long term.

If any wind tunnel was to be used outside F1 id recon that some of the LMP teams would be intrested, Aston Martin for its AMR One would be one id recon, Peugoet are using Aero Lab so the only other LMP team for me that would be intrested would be someone like Pescorolo or Oreca.

Im not sure who else could use the tunnels, appart from commercial manufacturers for their new small car that runs on a 900cc engine and is fuel efficent??

[Formula None]

Yay, flow lines:

[imightbewrong]

Some valencia photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/64336998@N ... 857641492/




Interesting to see the RW without the center pillar cover:

[Owen.C93]

I love the undercut on this car's sidepod.

[axle]

I take it the floor is broken here and the car is in basically the state it left Canada in at the time of the photo.

[Owen.C93]

It doesn't look broken to me. Those jagged edges are for aero performance. Vortex generators perhaps.

[wesley123]

it is just a really messy area imo, compare this area to those of other teams and you see what im talking about.

[FW17]

While Group lotus is funded by bank loans, Team Lotus boss has made a splash of $30 billion over the next 6 years.

Any pictures of the GE logo on the car?

[ESPImperium]

GE logos will start appearing from Silverstone.

GE are also providing Team Lotus with €20m minimum of technichal support each year as well, so most of this will be at the factory in the form of rapid prototyping and advanced tooling needs. They are giving Team Lotus arround €10m for the remainder of this year, with €30m from stae start of next year, for the next 5 seasons.

There is 2 more sponsors rumored to come on board, the first one is 85% certai in Blackberry providing the team €15m cash and €8m technichal support a season for 5 years for the rear wing and a few more areas on the car.

The second sponsorship is rumored to be the same as what Mercedes have with Petronas, but from Angolan oil company Sonagol, this will probably be €35m a year over 3 years with them providing Team Lotus their fuel as well.

This would put Team Lotus right bang in the top 6 teams budgetry wise with a budget of arround €200m a year from current and future sponsors. Only McLaren, Ferrari, red Bull, Renault and Mercedes would have more money avalable.

[dren]

GE logos will start appearing from Silverstone.

GE are also providing Team Lotus with €20m minimum of technichal support each year as well, so most of this will be at the factory in the form of rapid prototyping and advanced tooling needs. They are giving Team Lotus arround €10m for the remainder of this year, with €30m from stae start of next year, for the next 5 seasons.

There is 2 more sponsors rumored to come on board, the first one is 85% certai in Blackberry providing the team €15m cash and €8m technichal support a season for 5 years for the rear wing and a few more areas on the car.

The second sponsorship is rumored to be the same as what Mercedes have with Petronas, but from Angolan oil company Sonagol, this will probably be €35m a year over 3 years with them providing Team Lotus their fuel as well.

This would put Team Lotus right bang in the top 6 teams budgetry wise with a budget of arround €200m a year from current and future sponsors. Only McLaren, Ferrari, red Bull, Renault and Mercedes would have more money avalable.

Wow, that's a hell of a deal. This team is going to be moving on up with funding like that. It looks higher than Renault and Mercedes if this is true.

[zgred]

[czt]

I take it the floor is broken here and the car is in basically the state it left Canada in at the time of the photo.

Nope, they've just not fitted the bargeboard yet...

[Fil]

Welcome GE & Caterham.

[dren]

I thought GE would have a bigger space. Will the team be renamed to reflect Caterham in the future?

[horse]

Will the team be renamed to reflect Caterham in the future?

It's a question I've asked often. The thing that makes me think it won't (apart from the validity given to Team Lotus in the courts) is that the Chapman history of Team Lotus and the Lotus Seven (Caterham's main product) is so strong. With this team name and that company you virtually have the Chapman legacy in your hands. It seems a twist of fate that Team Lotus has become much more "Chapman" than perhaps you can identify with Proton owned Group Lotus.

So perhaps by maintaining Team Lotus / Caterham they will cement the historical relationship between Colin Chapman's Lotus and the present F1 operation.