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Lotus hits the track with 2010 car
ESPNF1 Staff
February 9, 2010
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The Lotus has made it out of the windtunnel and onto the track © Lotus
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The new Lotus made its debut on Tuesday as the legendary F1 marque returned to the track for the first time since 1994.
The car completed a handful of shakedown laps to perform systems checks ahead of its official debut at the third pre-season test next week in Jerez. The team has produced the car in just over five months and technical director Mike Gascoyne was delighted with his team's achievement.
"It was a big moment to see the car turn a wheel for the first time," he told BBC Sport. "We had no major issues or anything that gives us concern for the future. "To have done everything from scratch to a running car in 21 weeks is a fantastic achievement. It was a brief shakedown as we didn't get some of the last parts from our suppliers until 6am on Tuesday morning, but that was to be expected given the timescales."
He said that the conditions and time restraints didn't allow the team to get a full understanding of the car, but said there were no major issues.
"We only got to the track at lunchtime but it went pretty well," Gascoyne said. "We were able to do a few laps, which was perfect and great reward for everyone for all the effort they've put in. The Stowe circuit is not much bigger than a go-kart track and on a cold February afternoon when it's snowing intermittently you are never going to learn much about the handling of the car. But we got a good number of laps on it and we did all the systems checks so we can run in anger in Jerez."
Lotus is the second of the four new teams to run its car and will unveil it to the public on Friday afternoon. Virgin performed a shakedown on the same circuit last week and will join the rest of the F1 circus in Jerez this week. The future of the other two new entrants, US F1 and Campos, is less certain, but both remain adamant they will make the grid at the first race in Bahrain.
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