Lotus to continue work on Double DRS with E21

2013 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Lotus technical director James Allison says the team will persevere with the passive Double DRS it attempted to use on its car during 2012.

Speaking at the launch of the team’s 2013 challenger, Allison said: “This is an area we continue to work on and the passive nature of the switching of our device means it is not outlawed by the latest regulations.

“It is not something which will be a silver bullet to transform our car, but it is something which could add performance as part of the overall design.”

“We’ve continued to try to work on having a satisfactory level of rear downforce stability whilst having maximum DRS switching potential,” he added.

Although ‘active’ DRS-based devices which are triggered by the rear wing flap are banned this year, ‘passive’ system which operate by themselves remain legal. Lotus tried to use such a device last year, but abandoned it after testing it at several races.

Although teams have been expected to pursue evolutions of their 2012 cars, Allison said some aspects of the E21 are substantially different to its predecessor.

“Depending on where you look, some parts of the new car are a ground-up redesign and in other areas we have further optimised the best bits of the design philosophy we’ve adopted for several seasons. The front and rear suspension layouts are substantially revised to try and give us better aerodynamic opportunities.”

“After a string of quite eventful rule changes and interpretations in the years since 2009 it looks as if 2013 is going to be a year of regulatory stability,” he added. “There are only a few, very limited changes which comes as a considerable relief to the entire grid given the size of the transformation bearing down on the sport for 2014.

“Mind you, even with no changes to the text of the regulations, we never stop poring over the rules to look for new loopholes. Quite often, young engineers fresh from university will point out an ambiguity in the text of a regulation that has been settled for decades because they are looking at what is written with fresh eyes and no preconceived ideas about what is actually intended.”

2013 F1 season


Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Lotus/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

6 comments on “Lotus to continue work on Double DRS with E21”

  1. I’ve never really seen much of this guy before, he gave a very good interview in that video though. It seems the big teams are being very wary of getting caught out again like 2009.

  2. I think that Lotus have a really exciting car for this season. If they can get both their DRD and exhaust working, then I think they could be in contention for the title this year.

    One of the most interesting things he said is that they kept an eye out for the 2014 regulations, which is of course the sensible thing to do: the 2013 rules are practically the same as is 2012, but 2014 will be a big revolution. I think that the revision of the suspension, but most importantly making the car more svelte at the rear is a direct consequence of this. I’m still puzzled over the assymetric bumps above the integration point of the front suspension. Has anyone got any idea what that could be?

    1. I’m not sure what it’s for either, though it was also there on their 2012 car, so clearly whatever it is, or does, warrants it being kept for another year.

  3. Double-DRS?I thought for 2013 DD was completely banned but Lotus are working on it.So I’m a bit confused about this.Is Double-DRS banned or not?

    1. @ionutf1fanatic – I think your confusion arises from the fact Lotus’ system was wrongly dubbed “DDRS” as in the type of which Mercedes and later Red Bull used. They were activated when the DRS was opened, which for this year is banned because the DRS is no-longer allowed to have any secondary effects.

      However, Lotus’ system (the DRD) is a passive device and is activated by fluid switches – not by the DRS. So in essence your confusion comes from the fact it is wrongly referred to as DDRS, which is associated with the now banned system that Mercedes debuted.

      1. Ok thanks for explanation Max Jacobson.Now I’ts clear for me.Thanks a lot because I thought is going to be another year of iregularities with the regulation about DDRS.But now I’ve understood very well and clear.Thanks once again.

Comments are closed.