Lotus F1 Team has decided not to run for the rest of the second test at Barcelona. The test was due to cover four days, ending on Friday, but the team ran into trouble this morning with the new E20-02 chassis. The team made plans to fly the original chassis (E20-01) out from England to continue work tomorrow but the decision has been taken to cancel the test to make sure that everything is in order.
“We ran a series of simulations at the factory based on the data provided by our brief running on track today,” said technical director James Allison. “As a result, we were able to identify an area which requires some additional work. It will be more productive for us to carry out these modifications to both chassis at Enstone, rather than send E20-01 out to this week’s test. We’ll put the right measures in place and we will be able to fix the problem before next week.”
The team says that this is a setback.
“Not running this week has been a tough decision to take,” said Eric Boullier, “but we feel that our choice is the right one. On the positive side, we have quickly identified the issue with the chassis and our design office has already devised a solution. We will be present at next week’s test in Barcelona. We draw faith from the fact that the E20 was quick out of the box in Jerez and showed its reliability there. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next week, but everyone at Enstone is ready for this challenge.”
Joe,
If they have to modify their chassis, will that means another “crash test” session? If so, what are the chances of not seing them again next week at the second testing session in Barcelona?
Whops, I may be wrong, but wasn’t it Renault/Benetton who got their wind tunnel sums wrong a few years ago?
Not good as this will rob Kimi of valuable running time, why not send the old car, at least he gets to learn more about the tyres, Kers DRS etc?
Not really needed as Kimi is ready to go..
I don’t see this as a major problem for Lotus, they do not sound too worried about it…
F1 people always deny there are problems until the last possible moment. So we will have to wait and see how bad it is.
LOTUS Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious
Seriously? How old and irrelevent is that saying nowadays.
Going by their sales figures, very…..
K.O
If anything, this teaches us something about the usefulness (or lack thereof) of Jerez as a F1 test track, doesn’t it? You can apparently run around that track for days (and quickly) in a design that Montmelo shows is broken on your first lap. Wow.
The problem may have been there but not noticed until today. A fault may show itself more on one chassis than another (this is a different one). The set up required for each circuit is different, so it’s not surprising if the chassis’ react differently. Jerez may have shown up problems Catalunya may not.
If Jerez was useless, they wouldn’t go there.
Or it could have been damaged in transport?
It would be picked up by the drivers anyway regardless of the track.
Hi Joe – does cancelling a test like this give Lotus some testing days “in the bank” that they can use later in the season, or have they lost those days?
Good question.
Just like Mercedes tested last sunday at Barcelona, because they skipped a day at Jerez. But that whould also mean HRT has got a whole lot of extra testing days available during the season. Perhapse you can ‘reclaim’ a testing day just aslong as the season hasn’t started?
Until the start of the first race weekend the teams can test however and whenever they like within the limits of 1) an authorised track; 2) only F1 cars on it; 3) maximum of 15,000km.
There are some other fiddly rules but those are basically it.
They test as a group because it’s cheaper, easier and gives the engineers a vague performance yardstick and a chance to spy on each other.
It’s unlikely that any teams will catch up many test days as it’d be a pretty expensive operation to do more than one or two extra days.
Really bizarre but at the same time very embarrassing for Lotus. Where does this rank on the all time pre-season testing flops for you Joe? I’ve only been following F1 since 2009 so this for me is towards the top of the list.
Have HRT even got a 2012 car yet? I’d call that a flop.
This has to be really serious and would be a choice on safety grounds, maybe not enough strength in some part of the chassis or pick up point.
It certainly not a part that is changeable, unless they know they can get the days back to test later and think its better to wait for the modified part.
Good reporting Joe.
I must say doesn’t look good for the main sponsors of the team, Lotus, that the test is cancelled. One would hope that they can use the days, at another track to test the car. I look back at Mercedes, who missed the first test and used those days in the UK as a so called shakedown run.
As for the car itself, I would think that it is either engine mounts, or suspension attachment to the main body of the car, for them to call it off. Most other problems they have the skills and team to fix them at the track, so the car can run.
As you have mention in previous post Joe, you now have to wonder where Lotus is getting all this money – cash from to sponsor a range of teams in different categories. The old rule was that if I sponsored a team for say $10M, then I need to spend at least around $5M on top of that just to have a present at the races and get my brand across to the TV audience or the people who attend a race. The end results is to sell the brand and of course in Lotus case, sell cars and there engineering skills. So looking at the cars, they don’t appear to have many models to sell, so maybe the engineering and licensing agreement with other car companies is the money earner for the Car Company. As with a change of parent company ownership, one just wonders where this will lead to with what type of end results?
I hope LOTUS will solve it´s problems on time.
Just imagining how loud would be the laughing around here if it were the HRT team the one involved in such a mess.
No-one sensible is laughing at HRT. We are simply trying to say that there are easier ways to do this. They have chosen their path and good luck to them. If it is a debacle then it is a debacle. Once upon a time Frank Williams was known as Wanker Williams but he stuck it out, made the right decisions, found the right people and made it to the top. Maybe HRT will have the grit to do that but given their decision-making prowess thus far, I have my doubts. But in F1 you never know. The first thing they need to do is get through all the crash tests. I believe that these are still causing them trouble.
Sir Frank will be thankful to you for reviving his old title
Wondered how long it would be before someone started having a go at HRT and Force INdia
I remember in the dim and distant past another Lotus that broke its lower engine mount as it was being lifted onto the presentation stage, and it then was displayed with a wood block under the motor to keep the tub off of the floor! As times change, so nothing changes.
So whilst it may not have been quite the same failing, Lotus are just carrying on Chunky’s finest traditions.
Must be a big fault for them to can the test after only 7 laps, especially after their results at the first test. Just hope it is something that won’t stuff up their season. Just shows how fast you can go from Penthouse to S#!thouse!
This is exactly why we go testing………….
To find these issues, find reliability and then tweak the car to make it go fast.
Tracks differ, set ups differ – Jerez is slower, and has less downforce than Barcelona, so the car will react in a different way. Jerez is slower, but a good F1 car need to be quick at slow tracks as well as fast tracks, so it makes sense to test there.
The word on the street is that it is a front suspension mount issue – or the chassis is flexing at the front, which needs to be modified and stiffened.
Not really a tweek that is it
The word on the street I keep reading about is an Engine Mount issue.
Maybe its a problem that only emerges when you fill the tanks and put the ballast back in…
Haha I heard the same thing lol!
Joe, is it too late for Kimi to get his Nascar ride back?
20 cars on the grid in Melbourne?
It’s started already. I was just going to post a comment about “The Rotweiller” and then realised you were talking about Lotus and not Lotus.
Lots
Of
Trouble
Usually
Serious
Just watched the Renault F1 Team truck picking its way around the paddock in Barcelona (vid and pics from chums).
How come its got Lotus F1 Team written all over it?
Aren’t we now way beyond sponsorship and bordering on commercial misrepresentation.
To pretend that you’re running an F1 team – with all the technical benefit that derives from it – when you’re a car manufacturer, is a bit iffy isn’t it.
OK if you make biscuits or shoes or something, but when you make sports cars (well, will be making them in a year or two. In fact will be making a full range of Ferrari and Zonda beating killing machines), there’s gotta be the faint whiff of deception hasn’t there?
The first time I hear someone under the age of 21 say they’re buying a road lotus because of the teams track success I’ll drink my own oil – after having laughed myself stupid and the flicked the idiot the bird.
Still think the Chapman family backed the wrong lotus – but that’s neither here nor there. What price dignity – I’m sure they know exactly what price actually.
renault still brand their engine trucks. there’ll be one parked up outside the red bull garage too.
Gossip from the Bild apparently that Schumacher has been offered a two year contract extension by Merc. Any sniff of that in Barcelona Joe?
No idea, I am not in Barcelona.
Incredible. By the end of 2014, His Schupreme Majesty will be 45. It will be 20 years since he won his first title, and (barring a miracle in the meantime), 10 years since his last.
Questions: does his presence in a Merc F1 car really make such a difference to the parent company’s ability to sell road cars? And will it still do so when he is even more uber den Berg than he is now? And could they not still reap the benefits of his magnificence with him in a non-driving role (like what he had at Ferrari in 2007-08)?
As I postulated the other day, sooner or later Merc F1 is going to have to go large or go home. I’m not sure which this is. Maybe they REALLY have faith in Rosberg to deliver a title, and so Schooms can just hang around to sell the odd E-Class estate every now and then
Shouldn’t that be..
Even
Numptys
Stop
Testing
On
Negative
Evidence