Lotus F1 Team 2013

[radosav]

you heard wrong

from F1pulse :
Webber will be participating in his seventh season with Red Bull, this time with a new race engineer after Ciaron Pilbeam left for Lotus.Simon Rennie, who was at the receiving end of Kimi Raikkonen’s criticism over the radio in Abu Dhabi last year, will replace Pilbeam.

Still wrong, Rennie maybe go to Red Bull to be race engineer to Webber, but Pilbeam didnt become new race engineer of Raikkonen. He get new role in Lotus, something like boss of engineer operations in Lotus, higher function then he got in Red Bull.

no, his new role is chief race engineer, so , in a way , he is Kimi's race engineer, one of his many race engineers

[rkn]

Pilbeam will be Chief Race Engineer, therefore "boss" of both driver's engineers, Slade will still be the one working closest to Kimi.

[Forza]

Upgrades at Enstone

The Enstone home of lotus f1 Team at the Whiteways Technical Centre is a highly impressive facility nestled amidst the sleepy picturesque oxfordshire countryside. This is where dreams are made.

Based on the site of a former quarry, the team’s base is in a natural protection area and designed to blend into the local environment without causing an eyesore. It houses over 500 people with the main aim of producing two very fast racing cars to contest the Formula 1 World Championship.The essence of Enstone is an exceptionally friendly persona, producing some highly sophisticated products. Everyone eats in the same canteen and can make use of the team’s 24 hour gym and from the person who greets you at the gate, to the very highest echelon of the organisation, everyone is approachable and easy-going.This friendliness shouldn’t be perceived as a lack of focus; great things happen at Enstone as all the trophies and seven World Championships can testify.It would be wrong to think of the team’s base as a static entity. Over the past few years, dynamic developments have been taking place.Evidence of this can be seen in the ongoing upgrades of the CFD facility, significant upgrading of the wind tunnel from 50% to 60% (2011), creation of a ‘driver in the loop’ simulator (2012) and the installation of a new gearbox dyno facility as the team looks to the significant changes for 2014.

“An oft-stated truism about car development in Formula 1 is that ‘if you stand still…’. Although the sport tends to focus on the cars themselves, this statement is just as valid when applied to the facilities we use to design and make the cars,” explains Technical Director, James Allison.“To build the best car – you need the best tools at your disposal; whether that be the wind tunnel, the computers which simulate and assist in the design, or the wide range of specialist manufacturing equipment that is required to be able to realize those designs; all of these contribute to making a faster car for the track.”
Allison is proud of the recent developments to the facility at Enstone.

“Our CFD upgrade allows us to complete more accurate aerodynamic simulations in less time than
previously,” he explains.“The wind tunnel upgrade allowing us a 60% scale model in place of the previous half-scale device has two significant advantages: The bigger the model you use, the better the results from the tunnel will match those that we see in reality on the track. This means that our upgrades are more likely to produce their intended performance
improvement when they are tried on the track. Also, at 60%, it becomes possible to design and use various systems in the model that would have been impractically small on the old 50% model. This last point is particularly relevant around the wheels, where modelling the flow of air through the rims and brake drums has become an increasingly important performance area.”

The ‘driver-in-the-loop’ simulator went live at Enstone in 2012 and enables a driver to give further input into the development process.“Although conventional computer simulations are very powerful, they are still limited in their ability to tell us whether a new concept will produce acceptable handling characteristics. The driver in the loop simulator goes a long way to closing off that gap in our previous competence,” says Allison.

The latest ‘new-build’ at Enstone is a gearbox dyno facility.“2014 brings some enormous regulation changes. In
particular, the transmission designs which have been pretty stable for the last 6 years or so must all be torn up and started from scratch for 2014. The RPM and torque range of the 2014 engine is so different to what went before it that we must replace our factory testing facilities to make sure that they are compatible with the new designs. This investment will ensure that Enstone’s 2014 gearboxes are fast and reliable from the moment that the season begins.”

The creation of the E21 at Enstone occurs with only limited outsourcing. Most of the creative engineering takes place on site with components manufactured from raw materials and design, fabrication, carbon build, quality and durability testing on a multitude of rigs and with simulations in in electronic virtual worlds as well as on mechanical simulator rigs.Contained within the factory are the race bays – a set-up which is largely familiar to the race garage layout. Here the race team mechanics work on the build of the cars and it’s where the E21 is first seen as the components are bolted to the chassis for the birth of the 21st championship contender to come out of Enstone.

Here is the full official Lotus F1 press kit from the 2013 car launch
Scribd - Lotus F1 2013 Preview

[stefan_]

Lotus F1 Team family gets bigger this year.

Romain Grosjean ‏@RGrosjean

Hi everyone, I’m very happy to confirm that @marionjolles and I are expecting our first baby, due this summer. We are absolutely delighted!

[MarkedOne8]

Team still looking good in 2013 as in 2012, maybe even better. Major sponsor is still welcome.

[Red Schneider]

I guess the fact that Genii is on the sidepods means they don't have a major sponsor yet. It's not as if millions of people will look at the sidepods and decide to buy Genii.

The Honeywell thing hasn't happened yet either.

[stefan_]

They kept more or less the same names on the car this year, the only thing that surprised me was to see TW Steel go from Lotus to FI, but it's good that they kept the partnerships with big brands like Unilever (through Clear and Rexona) or Microsoft and brought Coca-Cola on board.

Don't know why I got the vote down on my previous post here though.

[raymondu999]

IMO TW went for brand association. Perhaps with Lotus emerging as a new top team, it no longer suits their brand image. (if you've never bought a TW Steel before, they copy designs of expensive brands, but they make no bones about not being a luxurious brand) As such, FIndia could suit their image better. Mind you - Casio still sponsors RBR, so...

[Cam]

IMO TW went for brand association. Perhaps with Lotus emerging as a new top team, it no longer suits their brand image. (if you've never bought a TW Steel before, they copy designs of expensive brands, but they make no bones about not being a luxurious brand) As such, FIndia could suit their image better. Mind you - Casio still sponsors RBR, so...

That hurts Ray. My Casio keeps ticking each year. I could almost set a WDC to it.

[raymondu999]

There is no doubting that Casio watches are good watches, Cam. But my point on TW Steel is that they could view sponsoring a top team as presenting themselves as too "upmarket" - which TW Steelmare not.

[Cam]

As opposed to Rexona? I disagree Ray. Sponsors align themselves for different reasons.

[korzeniow]

Well, Kimi is far more expirienced than Romain, so I expected him to be testing new parts while Romain could work on reliability.

This theory could still work if they will put new parts for tomorrow.

[Donuts]

Well, Kimi is far more expirienced than Romain, so I expected him to be testing new parts while Romain could work on reliability.

This theory could still work if they will put new parts for tomorrow.

According to the link in my previous post(if they're not hiding something), all the "goodies" will be introduced in the next test and as we all know... in Australia.

[Kansas]

Well, Kimi is far more expirienced than Romain, so I expected him to be testing new parts while Romain could work on reliability.

This theory could still work if they will put new parts for tomorrow.

that has nothing to do with experience.

Kimi always has good feel around the car since his sauber days. With Romain you only get feedback like "good, good, good"

Apparently one of the reason why sauber employ him was due to his accurate feedback from the car that matched the telemetry feedback.

According to Will Buxton, kimi was the one informing Lotus about something not right with the car after last day of jerez test in 2012, it turns out nasty in Barcelona with faulty suspension mounting.


Judging by how much he wanted the power steering to be as sensitive as it could provides justified his ability to sense the car.

EDIT:

Lotus had telemetry issues that prohibited them from doing long runs.

[sirexilon]

video of Kimi and a sky reporter about his motivation.

Great answer Kimi

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=477743225625412