Lotus Racing T127

[CJ101KT]

http://www.lotusracing.my/

[The Ref]

press release..

Lotus Racing today unveiled its 2010 challenger, the Lotus Cosworth T127, at a glittering event in London’s Royal Horticultural Hall. Team Principal Tony Fernandes was joined on stage by Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and drivers Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Fairuz Fauzy to take the wraps off the car in front of a 500 strong live audience.

As the lights came up the car’s stunning green and yellow livery was seen for the first time, striking an emotional chord with both young and old alike and evoking memories of some of motor racing’s most iconic moments in an entirely contemporary fashion.

Tony Fernandes gave his thoughts on the astonishing achievement the Lotus Racing team has accomplished in launching the car just five short months since the team was granted its entry to the FIA Formula One World Championships, saying: “I am extremely proud to be here today and to be able to show the world the fruits of the team’s hard work over the last five months. It’s humbling for me and my fellow shareholders, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin to see how a team that five months ago didn’t even exist is now a thriving workforce, full of enthusiasm and passion for Lotus Racing and the challenges ahead and capable of producing such a beautiful machine in such a short time.

“Now we’ve achieved two major milestones; confirming our entry and unveiling our car, but now the real work starts. Next we move on to testing and the season ahead and I’m confident that the team will exceed expectations wherever we go, and will do so on a wave of support around the world that has been growing daily since we first unleashed Lotus Racing back in September ’09.”

Mike Gascoyne added his thoughts, saying “The last few months have been some of the most challenging of my career, but it’s been a challenge the whole team and I have thrived on since we first started work on the car up in Norfolk. I’m delighted that we’ve reached this point, and now we have a beautiful car that gives us a great base to work from for the season ahead and a fighting chance of going racing in the right way, with a winning mentality. The hard part starts now, and I know everyone in the team and I are up for whatever lies ahead.”

The Lotus Racing T127 is powered by Cosworth and will use an Xtrac gearbox and, in line with all 2010 teams, will be running on Bridgestone tyres

[CJ101KT]

08:06 Heikki Kovalainen is at the wheel of the Lotus today. The team has solved its power steering issues and the Finn will be able to use it today
08:13 Heikki is using a new helmet design now that he's at Lotus: @H_Kovalainen: Sneak preview of my new crash helmet... http://tweetphoto.com/11744522
09:03 Heikki is still in the pits after just three laps. He is yet to set a time
10:25 Heikki's Lotus made smoke in the garage earlier this morning. He is yet to set a time
10:41 Heikki has taken to the track with the Lotus
10:45 1:31.9 for Vettel, 1:33.5 for Glock, 1:36.7 for Heikki
10:47 Heikki goes back to his garage
10:49 Lap count so far today: Barrichello 28, Hamilton 27, Glock 25, Rosberg 24, di Resta 20, Buemi 20, Vettel 17, Massa 14, de la Rosa 8, Heikki 7, Petrov 1
10:59 Heikki back on track. He joins Vettel, Barrichello, di Resta and Buemi
11:09 Five cars on track - Vettel, Heikki, Glock, Buemi and Rosberg. Vettel is quickest by some margin
11:34 Heikki takes the Lotus out of the pits
11:36 Petrov is still slowest, but now the Russian is just four tenths off Heikki's best
11:39 Petrov dives into the pits and leaves Heikki alone on track, with Barrichello now heading out
11:43 Heikki is currently on a seven-lap stint, with the last three laps in the 1:34s
11:50 Heikki has caused the third red flag of the day after going off at Turn 3
11:52 Heikki was enjoying a trouble-free eight-lap run when he lost control of his Lotus and got stuck in the gravel
11:55 The front wing is missing from the Lotus. The question is whether they have a spare one ?
12:16 Lotus reports that it is evaluating the damage to Heikki's car, as work continues to retrieve the T127. It appears the front wing has been badly damaged.
12:50 An apologetic Heikki confirms that Lotus is out of action for the rest of the day, @H_Kovalainen: "Had a crash and damaged front wing, session over for us. S..t! My mistake, tomorrow we go again..."
13:01 More Lotus news from @MikeGascoyne: "Slight off for Heikki. Knocked off the front wing. Spare on its way but will not be here until 2am in the morning so no more running today"
13:10 With his car sidelined for the rest of the day, @MikeGascoyne takes time to update the Lotus fans: "Made some progress on the hydraulic issues we have been having. Guess we will have time to test that progress this afternoon!!!"
14:32 A Lotus repair update from @MikeGascoyne: "Starting to put the car back together. If we had a spare front wing would be out again today but have to wait until tomorrow"
14:56 Lotus boss Tony Fernandes is still delighted with progress despite Heikki's accident curtailing the team's day, @tonyfernandes: "Good day despite heikki going off. Using time to fix hydraulics. Morale great. Such a can do attitude. Got good 30 laps in."

Heikki is due out in the car again tomorrow. Let's hope the replacement wing arrives OK.

[Specky]

Oops....

Sadly not good reading, 5 seconds off the pace

More pics on you tube

[lotusgirlmarie]

I just hope that they can live up to the success of the JPS cars and drivers before they run out of funding.

[CJ101KT]

I just hope that they can live up to the success of the JPS cars and drivers before they run out of funding.

Proton and 1Malaysia are both Malaysian government partnerships, and with Proton being the major stakeholder in Lotus, has the power to do a great many things and the funding to do so. I wouldn't worry about them running out of cash that's for sure! Proton has not only been behind the Malaysian A1 GP car for the last several years but also in 2009 launched a Proton S2000 WR2 Rally car.

The whole return of Lotus to F1 has sparked many debates over the past few months but I can tell you know I will be fully behind them, just like the Chapman family and Lotus Cars!

[Specky]

Lotus are still better than Virgin....

Air Stewardess uniform on standby Richard...

TTFN

[CJ101KT]

[Specky]

It's not going to well....

Trulli is the slowest on track by nearly 6 seconds....

Lets hope things pick up...

Live updates



TTFN

[XiPHiAS]

Don't forget this was Lotus first testsession with the car ...
Other teams did at least 1, 2 sessions.

And ... 6-8 months ago "Lotus F1" was just some toughts in the heads of a couple of pleople.
Now the car is there ... and designed and build in a record time.

[Specky]

Don't forget this was Lotus first test session with the car ...
Other teams did at least 1, 2 sessions

Personally after 4 days of testing I thought they would have made greater improvements... (Granted they lost the nose cone for one day, but I bet they worked the car nearly constantly)

And ... 6-8 months ago "Lotus F1" was just some toughts in the heads of a couple of pleople.
Now the car is there ... and designed and build in a record time.

In all honesty I don't think they'll be at all happy.... it doesn't matter about the past, it's the present I'm intrested in....

I just hope they can pull it out of the bag... Come on boys....

TTFN

[Specky]

Lotus maybe having a tough time, but not as much as these boys Clicky

Only four days to go till they're back out on track...

And if Kovalainen mentions the lack of downforce one more time........ we've got Monty on standby to teach him a lesson....

TTFN

[theelanman]

whilst we're not the fastest....it good to see that trulli was consistent in putting up the most laps.....
looks like its gonna get to the finish line moreoften than not......when your a new boy I think that is always a good place to start.....keep it on the black stuff and get it to the end......
we all knew that we wernt gonna be mclaren or ferrari.......just gotta be the best of the new boy rest..should be ok to beat campos and usf1....think these guys are gonna miss the first few races......

must admit its only just dawned on me that manor motorsport had gone and become virgin.....
Id completely forgotten that they were manor to start with on the f1 application....based in sheffield...up north

[CJ101KT]

76 more laps for Fairuz Fauzy on the first day of the Barcelona test marks another satisfactory day for Lotus Racing. In dry, sunny conditions the team completed all its objectives for the day and are now looking forward to seeing Jarno Trulli take over driving duties tomorrow and Saturday.

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne gave his thoughts on the day’s on track action, saying “It was a very productive day - 76 laps with no mechanical worries on the car. In the morning we conducted some engine LAMDA running which we completed successfully. We ran through a series of system set up checks, completed our first starts and evaluated a number of other control systems on the car, as well as monitoring temperatures and pressures throughout the car.

“All in all this was a successful day both on the track and we ticked off a lot of behind the scenes tasks ahead of the first race. Fairuz did a very good job today, with no mistakes, and we were able to complete our whole program.”
Jarno Trulli takes over tomorrow with more dry running ahead of the Lotus Racing team.

[CJ101KT]

Heikki Kovalainen MTV3 Commercial

[Specky]

Live updates from Autosport

Slowest again.... 6.5 seconds slower than the leaders.....

I wonder if Lotus have the speed to qualify for a GP race.....

Come on Boys........

TTFN

[Specky]

Today's live updates

08:34 Lotus boss says Fauzy needs to work on his pace:

So it's not the car..... it's the driver .....So why is Trulli nearly 2 seconds slower...

I hope the boys get a grip soon, because it's dam fustrating....and then everyone can tell me to wind my neck in.

If they put a proper badge on the car it'd go faster....

Come on Lads...

TTFN

[Alan_C]

Is there any TV coverage of the practice times? I can't find any listed, which UK channel now has the race coverage?

[theelanman]

dont know about the TV but if you go here

http://live.autosport.com/

you can keep up with the twittering.........
I just leave it running on my desktop......

pick your day and keep track as it happens......or get a summary of the days events after.....

[Specky]

Stuck between a couple of Virgins, It could be worse...

Roll on tomorrow....

TTFN