Lotus undecided on DRD for Germany
Lotus have finally debuted their DRD at Silverstone last weekend and are apparently pleased with the results. The team is however not sure yet if the DRD is going to be used at the Nürburgring.
At Silverstone, Kimi ran with the Device while Romain ran with the new slimline bodywork package. It was effectively the first time such a system was used in race conditions despite several teams having run tests with their own designs.
"The gains from both were roughly on a par with each other, Alan Permane said. "Once we’ve confirmed everything on the data, combining the two – which have been developed on parallel but separate development paths – could well be the way forward. That won’t be for Germany, where we’ve yet to determine which package we will use."
Lotus team principal Eric Boullier took the lid off slightly, saying that "It should make appearances again this season. We have also developed a new aerodynamic package which also brings benefits.".
The team hints that a combination of the new slimline bodywork and the DRD may be the best way forward, although it is clear that the drag reduction device will work better at some circuits than others. It is mainly therefore that we may not see it at every race for the remainder of the season.
More is to come though, as Permane noted a new wing is still left untested.
"Having only just been to Silverstone there won’t be anything major, as the crew will be driving straight down to Germany to rebuild the cars without stopping at the factory. That said, we still have a new wing which we haven’t used yet and we still have to try various permutations of the latest upgrades on both cars. If it’s good weather and everything goes to plan, we could unlock quite a bit of speed this weekend."
