{"id":1102,"date":"2010-04-30T08:10:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T16:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2010-04-30T08:10:51","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T16:10:51","slug":"lotus-racing-barcelona-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/30\/lotus-racing-barcelona-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Lotus Racing Barcelona Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks is a short time in F1, but that\u2019s how long Lotus Racing has had to fit in several months of hard work. Since China, the team has, in order, beaten the Icelandic ash cloud, unpacked and repacked 34 tonnes of freight, run an intensive series of tests on Chassis T127-02, fitted an entire upgrade package to the race cars, taken delivery of its newly painted race trailers (in a matching colour scheme to the race cars) and flown the race team back to Barcelona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lotus<\/a><\/p>\n

Mike Gascoyne<\/a> \u201cNow the first four flyaway races are behind us and we\u2019re into the European season. All the teams will have upgrades for Barcelona, but we\u2019re hoping that ours is even more significant than our rivals because we received our entry so late and had to freeze the initial specification of the car very early in the design process. We do expect it to be reasonably significant \u2013 we have an aero package with revised sidepods, front wings and brake ducts, and a number of mechanical changes, but obviously we\u2019ll have to wait and see what step forward our rivals will also make. Straight after Barcelona we go to Monaco which is a totally different challenge. It\u2019s a unique place in terms of its configuration. Everyone runs maximum downforce and obviously it\u2019s a very tight, bumpy street circuit, but the experience our two drivers bring, combined with the progress we\u2019ve made at the factory and on track, gives me confidence we\u2019ll put in a good showing at both races.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lotus<\/a><\/p>\n

Returning to the Lotus Racing factory in Hingham, Mike has seen a transformation in the team\u2019s UK base. \u201cIt\u2019s very gratifying to see the whole factory in full operation, with every department now nearly fully staffed but starting to work to their full potential. This means we can now look at more long-term development and R&D programmes, and start thinking about future cars. We\u2019re through the hardest part of the team\u2019s growth and we\u2019re on a very good footing for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lotus<\/a><\/p>\n

Heikki Kovalainen<\/a> is now looking forward to the start of the European season having returned from China with the team on AirAsia: \u201cI spent two nights at home in Switzerland then flew to Finland to see my family for the first time since Christmas. I\u2019ve been doing various bits of work with my Finnish partners, relaxing a little and of course training like usual. I had some new golf clubs fitted by Nike Finland and have been practicing with them too, so my golf\u2019s definitely improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the forthcoming races themselves he said: \u201cIt\u2019s always good to get to Barcelona as it\u2019s where most of the teams bring their first big updates. It\u2019s a very fast track and all the teams spend a lot of time there in pre-season, so we know it very well, but it\u2019s the complete opposite to racing in Monte Carlo. In Barcelona there are more chances to overtake but nowhere else has the same glamour or prestige as Monaco. It\u2019s so busy there on track there\u2019s no time to relax, and there are no run off areas so you pay heavily for any mistakes. I really like street circuits – you are rewarded for good car control so I\u2019m looking forward to getting on track and seeing what steps forward we\u2019ve taken with the updates.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jarno Trulli<\/a> is also excited about returning to Spain, and Monaco, the circuit where he wrote himself into the history books by winning in 2004. \u201cI made it back home from China with a number of the other drivers, but we got back safely and I\u2019ve been home with my family since then. I\u2019ve managed to fit in a number of good training sessions, and am looking forward to getting back in the car. I think I\u2019ve had a fair bit of bad luck so far, but I\u2019m looking to put that behind me and see how much further forward we can go with the updates. I\u2019ve kept in close touch with the team about the tests they\u2019ve put the car through, and am encouraged by the results they\u2019ve had. I think we\u2019ll take a good step forward in Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Barcelona – we all know every bit of it very well as we test there a lot, and have raced there for years. Monaco is obviously a very special place for me \u2013 a lot of my fans will be out in force, and I love going back to where I\u2019ve won, so that\u2019ll be a busy, but good week.\u201d <\/p>\n

Team Principal Tony Fernandes<\/a> has been thinking about how the team has established itself, both on track and in the hearts and minds of F1 fans: \u201cWe\u2019re back in Europe and I couldn\u2019t be more pleased with the position we arrive in. The first phase of Lotus Racing\u2019s life is now behind us, and the next challenge starts here. We\u2019ve proved all the doubters wrong, and have shown that the hard work everyone in the team puts is making the dream we share come true. I remember the immense pride I had when I first saw the cars run in the pre-season tests in Spain, and in Barcelona we\u2019re back, ahead of the other new teams and with a new package that will help us push on closer to the next goal, which is to take on the midfield. Ultimately it\u2019s about taking Lotus Racing to the front of the grid and this marks the next step in that journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal level I\u2019ve always loved coming to Spain, and with Monaco straight afterwards I\u2019m very excited about seeing how our fanbase is growing into the traditional heartland of Formula One\u2122. We\u2019ve broken new ground in Australia, Asia and China and now we\u2019re back at the scene of some of the most famous moments in the Lotus history.\u201d<\/p>\n

[press release from Lotus Racing]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks is a short time in F1, but that\u2019s how long Lotus Racing has had to fit in several months of hard work. Since China, the team has, in order, beaten the Icelandic ash cloud, unpacked and repacked 34 tonnes of freight, run an intensive series of tests on Chassis T127-02, fitted an entire … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lotus Racing Barcelona Preview”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[32,200,213,251,284,334,339,366,420,497,542],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqLPi-hM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gglotus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}