Lotus E22 Pre-launch Speculation

[Owen.C93]

Wouldn't be surprised if Ferrari didn't want STR having their engine considering their ties to the works Renault team.

[marcush.]

common bolt Patterns -geometrical Interfaces does not really translate to an easy engine swap.The hard bit is the Subsystems Integration with electronics ,mapping etc.
You cannot just swap the supplier here -but it´s too late anyways -considering the Teams already work for two years on this Project.
Granted those who can will be already discussing hard with potential other suppliers if they had the Feeling Renault is not capable of getting it right.

[fawe4]

Ferrari hasn't screwed up like that, they felt short but put a fight.

We are looking at failing to start, that's REALLY messed up.

the problem here is it isn't a team problem. it's a essential part problem, the heart of the car,
and it goes for 4 teams.

No way do 4 teams have made a similar mistake, the fault is at renault, clear and simple. But that has
been clear after a couple of days already. The problem they'll be facing now is how fast they'll fix it.

Prospects aren't looking good. Again, this raises the question; can renault bring a reasonable package
in time for the first gp so the 4 renault powered teams are able to compete? If you'd have to believe the
news seeping out, it'll be 20 weeks? not before silverstone, thus? That's hardly acceptable, but given the
fact Toro Rosso did pull out most laps, and gaining speed/laptime, the question is, is renault gonna have
to take 20 weeks, or does RedBull need 20 weeks to fix the problem, combined with Renault?

I don't see RedBull nor Toro Rosso stepping out of the powerplants, i still smell possibility for Lotus to jump
to a Merc engine, Cosworth if really neccesary and feasible. It'd be a shocker if cosworth could atleast produce
a engine that actually runs, how remote that chance might be.
Merc certainly has a good package ready to go. The question is though, does the contract allow, and does finances
allow?

I assume Caterham can't pay the Merc engines. but can Lotus?

If i were lotus? I'd hang a merc engine in that puppy today - guaranteed a working powerplant and guaranteed being
part of the competition.

I'm not so sure that Mercedes have shelves full of engines ready for any team that wants them to pop in and buy...my guess would be that both Merc and Ferrari only have enough capacity to build the engines their partner teams have already ordered...the teams who went with Renault are almost certainly stuck with Renault...

Nah, in unrestricted period everyone could pop up engines at will. It shouldn't be a problem to make couple extra for anyone. The question is what do Ferrari and Mercedes gain by lending engines to their competitors.

Sure it makes Renault look bad, but all of them are selling in different sectors, so I seriously doubt Ferrari/Mercedes could see an advantage there. On other hand, RB and Lotus are championship contenders, so I'm certain that if Ferrari had an option to equip RB with their engine, they'd put it together with spare parts, then just to make sure, performed precise test of dropping it from the top of their factory, before shipping it out.

[radosav]

I thougt that every engine manufacturer has to sell their engines to any team that wishes to buy them , for a price of 5 million !

[BorisTheBlade]

I thougt that every engine manufacturer has to sell their engines to any team that wishes to buy them , for a price of 5 million !

No and no. The amount for this season is said to be between 15 and 25 million €.

[iotar__]

Looking now it was a really poor thinking from Red Bull management to move STR to the same engine as RBR during this big transition... the should have hedged their bet...

How is that related to Lotus car? Asking earlier about possible early test was considered off-topic and deleted Hedge the bet how - contracts for engines would still be separate and with manufacturers. Do you think they could swap willy nilly and slap with a hammer if it didn't fit if it was Ferrari for TR?

Looks like knowing reasons for rumoured not running is not required to draw conclusions. So why did they run one lap (one timed lap, outlap?), Allen didn't ask his "sources" for reasons? Let's speculate: test is more for Renault than Lotus, judging from the way they (TD) talked in Jerez next stop was Bahrain. So they (engine) put some solution, it measured negatively, they stopped. Or maybe it was raining (do "test" wet tyres exist?), or maybe they had Red Bull/McLaren 1st day of tests type of problems?

[kwanchepan]

Craig Scarborough ‏@ScarbsF1
@bgarloff @RenaultSportF1 thanks for the confirmation...

Bianca Garloff ‏@bgarloff
@ScarbsF1 Also heard that the second day of Lotus-testing went really well... Almost 100 km done. No problems with @RenaultSportF1 anymore.

Craig Scarborough ‏@ScarbsF1
Further to the Lotus test, I hear they completed nearly 100km on their second day @Jamesallenonf1

[quidam]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/200186/1/l ... blems.html

=D>

[fawe4]

Now where are the pictures.

[piast9]

This was a new idea for the "filming session" or "promotional event" during which no pictures are taken.

[iotar__]

Now where are the pictures.

What about times? I bet they ran at 85% of engine capacity.

No need for pictures - mileage info is enough as a "promotional" part . [Mercedes are already double world champions based on km ran]

[danielk]

Now where are the pictures.

What about times? I bet they ran at 85% of engine capacity.

No need for pictures - mileage info is enough as a "promotional" part . [Mercedes are already double world champions based on km ran]

I think the reason he was asking for pictures is because that would give allot more insight in to the car than times would. Lotus did almost 100km so at 4.5 Km track length we are talking about 21 laps or something like that? I can just about gauruntee that most of them were simply install laps, checking systems etc. They had no interest in setting times and most of the laps were probably done 30 seconds off the pace doing constant aero runs etc. So I would say with certainty that the times ran would have 0 relevance at all.

Pictures however, they tell you what their design ideas are which are of much higher value than times

[Pup]

I think if the 100km rumor is true, which we have no real reason to doubt, then it only suggests that Lotus aren't suffering from the same packaging problems as Red Bull. It doesn't say much about the general Renault engine problems, since Torro Rosso and Caterham were also completing similar or greater distances in the first test. We'll have to wait until Bahrain to know anything about the quality of those laps.

[Juzh]

They were covering distance, yes. But they did it 15s off the pace.

[FrukostScones]

They were covering distance, yes. But they did it 15s off the pace.