Lotus technical director Nick Chester says the team will introduce a long wheelbase version of the E21 in the next race at Monza.
“We are targeting this strong development to the end of this year and the long wheelbase at Monza is part of that,” said Chester in a press conference at the Belgian Grand Prix.
“So we’re going to keep bringing developments through Monza and then the following races as well. There’s certainly developments also planned for Singapore and Korea.”
Chester said the revisions will not require changes to the monocoque and that the necessary homologation work on the car had already been done: “The way we’re going to do it is with a front suspension change.”
He expects the changes to the E21 “should make the car a little bit more stable [and] a little bit easier to drive.”
“It could even give us a small tyre management advantage. So we think it’s the right thing to do and we’re looking forward to bringing it to Monza.”
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Image © Lotus/LAT
maybet
23rd August 2013, 17:07
Too much weight distributed to the front causing front graining.
And the car is very sensitive to setup as Romain demonstrated during earlier of the season. Kimi had fair share of those too in Hungary.
I hope they can get it done successfully.
Todfod (@todfod)
23rd August 2013, 18:00
Wheelbase?!? That’s quite a big risk Lotus are taking.. lets just hope it pays off
erix
24th August 2013, 4:19
They should do it since Canada.
Eddie (@wackyracer)
23rd August 2013, 18:06
I can see they are chasing the championship
maybet
23rd August 2013, 18:20
No choice. They are aiming to improve the handling of the car and ease off the graining issues on the front.
If the car is more compliant they could wider the setup window.
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
23rd August 2013, 19:29
Now isn’t that going to affect the weight of the car?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd August 2013, 21:50
@aish I don’t see why it should.
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
23rd August 2013, 22:15
Autosprint reported that the whole car will be longer overall by up to 10 cm. So I’m assuming there will be a slight weight gain from those extra 10 cm, but it’s probably negligible because the extra length will be all in the nose, not the chassis. They’ll be forced to lengthen the nose because otherwise the front wheels will be too close to the front wing, and I’m sure that affects the aero.
karter22 (@karter22)
23rd August 2013, 23:42
distribution maybe but not the car!
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
24th August 2013, 17:20
@karter22 and @marciare-o-marcire: Thanks a lot, my confusion is solved. :)
oliveiraz33 (@oliveiraz33)
23rd August 2013, 20:21
This is what to me is what’s hapening:
This is just duo to better stabiliy… Incresed wheelbase will make the car more mild when going over the bumps in the chicanes, and adding stabilty to able drivers to make a quicker turn in in the chicanes without unsetling the car as much..
@maybet It won’t have nothing to do with graining… First, because monza is a “traction” track, wich the rear tires are the ones to suffer the most… Second, Increasing the wheelbase actualy increases the tendency of a chassis to understeer wich would provoke more front tire wear (and less rear tire wear wich is the most usefull at monza…)
The first 2 chicanes are the most important corners of Monza to make a good lap, where you need a car with positive turn in, atack the kerbs with a precisa angle so the car doesn’t jump too much, and the most important, carefull acceleration to avoid excessive wheelspin.