Lotus 2010: first photos

Lotus, which will make its debut in Formula 1 thanks to the withdrawal of BMW, communicated on the progress of the development of the car 2010. The Malaysian team, which has developed a scale model of its next car, is on its way to its first wind tunnel tests. “ The start of the wind tunnel stage is very important in the development in a new F1 car, confides Mike Gascoyne, technical director of Lotus F1 Racing. This is particularly exciting for us as we continue to prepare for our first season. We have been very busy since our entry was confirmed by the FIA. We have been working on our arrival for several months so we have an already established infrastructure: the budget, the factory and the top of the management team. Once our commitment was validated in mid-September, we were able to accelerate our development. »

Concerning the identity of the team, despite a factory in Great Britain, Mike Gascoyne confirms that the team flies the Malaysian flag. “ Our arrival was made possible thanks to funding from the private sector in Malaysia, which means that our team is completely Malaysian. We also benefited from valuable support from the Malaysian government through the “1Malaysia Initiative”. The team is also in the process of recruiting Malaysian employees for administration, marketing and public relations. The longer term vision is to create a center of technical excellence at the Sepang circuit, something we have already started planning with Tony Fernandes. The team will be headquartered in Malaysia, but we will maintain a small UK base which will give us a logistical advantage when racing in Europe. »