Lotus plan to introduce an updated design for their unusual twin-pronged nose but say they have delayed some of the developments for their E22 due to a lack of running in the Bahrain test.
The team only managed 32 laps in two days of running in the post-race test at Bahrain following a series of problems with their Renault power unit.
Because of the lack of running the team have had to “prioritise what parts to evaluate”, said technical director Nick Chester.
“We’ve had to adapt our programme for China because of this. We’re going to attempt to get as much as we can out of FP1 and FP2 in Shanghai to test new parts, but ultimately we’ve delayed the introduction of some key developments until Barcelona now.
“We have a lot of aero parts we want to evaluate throughout the E22, including an evolution to our nose. Expect to see some bodywork upgrades in China and then a bigger upgrade in Barcelona.”
Chester said Pastor Maldonado was on course to claim a point before his collision with Esteban Gutierrez, and expects the E22 to be more competitive in Shanghai.
“Bahrain was an obvious power circuit, as you could see from the way the cars lined up on the grid.
“China’s got a long back straight, however there are more slow and medium speed corners than Bahrain, so that gives us the chance to try and get closer to the front.”
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Image © Lotus/LAT
Gino Van Den Broecke (@crekkan)
11th April 2014, 13:46
“Chester said Pastor Maldonado was on course to claim a point before his collision with Esteban Gutierrez…”
In fact, he scored three!
Milky White
11th April 2014, 13:53
Well said.
Pete (@repete86)
11th April 2014, 14:02
Pastor is usually on course to score points before ramming someone.
DaveD (@daved)
12th April 2014, 0:56
+1
Nickpkr251
11th April 2014, 14:12
exactly someone need to explains what points he need to get !
alexf1man (@alexf1man)
11th April 2014, 18:46
Pastor Maldonado doing the usually impossible (at least for anyone else) and scoring three points in the 2010-present points system era… Then again, points make prizes so if he wants the ban prize then keep going!
mantresx (@mantresx)
11th April 2014, 15:38
Given they’re so far back compared to the other teams they should just put the new parts in China without validating them first, of course if you suggest this to any respectable engineer you will get dirty looks but desperate times requiere desperate measures.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
11th April 2014, 16:28
@mantresx not always… if the car’s going wrong, and you fit new parts not yet fully developed, it can only go backwards from that point… more than before !
mateuss (@mateuss)
11th April 2014, 16:39
No! That does not make sense. Desperate times require efficient and well thought out long term measures. Life is not a catchphrase.
Validation is not just important to know weather putting new bits on will make the car faster or slower. It is absolutely necessary to know whether the concepts work, whether they correlate with other data, without out this, any current and future work by the engineers can and always will be to a certain extent a useless waste of time and other resources (which would make the situation even more desperate, hence my prior statement).
HK (@me4me)
11th April 2014, 16:12
It’s hard to see how Lotus could come back to the front and score points on a regular basis. They have to beat 4 Mercedes powered teams, the Ferrari works team, and the 4-time world champions. I wish them all the best tho, they certainly come up with some clever ideas from time to time.
Sam Andrew
11th April 2014, 17:25
Haha this is probably a result of having way too many aero engineers, and not enough electrical and mechanical ones to solve their reliability issues; The aero guys are all left twiddling their thumbs.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
11th April 2014, 18:32
I’m expecting three tusks.
alexf1man (@alexf1man)
11th April 2014, 18:58
At least it could then be symmetrical – who knows, it could actually look more like a three pronged fork for Maldonado to hit everyone with :P
Boomerang
11th April 2014, 20:58
If you visit auto-motor-und-sport.de you’ll see what was Nick talking about. However, in my opinion they should scrap twin-tusk nose and go for one like merc or redbull, although I think twin tusk nose helps to feed difuser, at the other hand, it makes the front end of the car a bit loose. Besides that, they introduced additional chimney to help hot air extraction from the car ( The chimney is visible on the left side of the car as a part of the floor ). It is the worse place to extract the hot air ( in my opinion, of course ) because the hot air might – and should – end up under the car ( rake of the car is the cause ) disrupting efficiency of the diffuser. Hence they’ll have to loose ends of the car. In other words they’ll have a pigg. BUT, I know they’re clever guys and they’ll comme atop of their problems eventually. I sincerelly hope and wish them the best.
Boomerang
11th April 2014, 21:05
Sorry, because of typo: “to loose ends”, should be “two loose ends”
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
11th April 2014, 19:00
Maybe we are going from a Forklift to a Digger?
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
12th April 2014, 10:14
There’s the McLaren…..
Peter (@boylep6)
13th April 2014, 0:16
I think the revision is likely related to flipping Gutierez.
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th April 2014, 6:39
@boylep6 I don’t think flipping Gutierrez had anything to do with the nose. Gutierrez flipped because his rear right wheel hit Maldonado’s front left.
Peter (@boylep6)
13th April 2014, 11:42
You are right. I just searched for and found the reverse angle view in response your post. In this view it is clear (2nd half of video particularly so).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q1CkOReIAg