[F1] Lotus F1 Racing

Narm a écrit:En effet, il semble que la Virgin a repris du poil de la bête quand les nouveautés de Lotus semblent difficiles à exploiter et fragiliser la voiture

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
Hungaroring, Hungary 31st July 2010

Lotus Racing will start the Hungarian Grand Prix in 20th and 21st positions, with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli qualifying within 1/10th of a second of each other at the Hungaroring in today’s official qualifying session.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP3: 22 laps, best time 1.24.623, 21st / QUALIFYING: 20th, 1.24.120, 9 laps “I think we got as much out of the car as we could today. Considering the time I lost yesterday it felt like the maximum this afternoon. The car felt ok, and it’s a bit of a relief we got to where we are as I wasn’t sure about the balance today, bearing in mind I’d missed most of FP2. We’re still in a decent position for tomorrow and we’ll focus on the start and the strategy, and make sure we stay ahead of the other new teams in the race itself.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP3: 22 laps, best time 1.24.576, 20th / QUALIFYING: 21st, 1.24.199 9 laps “It’s a bit disappointing today. I was going well on the first run but I was held by the traffic in the last sector and lost about 4/10ths, so we had to abort that lap – it’s a shame as that was looking like pretty good. On the second run the tyres didn’t work as well as we’d hoped and that cost me a lot of time. Despite that we’ll do our best tomorrow, and want to see both cars across the finish line.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Little bit of a disappointing qualifying session today. After the first run both drivers were relatively happy, but neither of them got a clean run on the second set of tyres – Jarno in particular said he had very little grip with the second set. However, we are where we are, and we’re looking for a strong two car finish tomorrow.”

Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Team Principal: “After the issues we had on Friday with Heikki we’ve got to be relatively pleased with where we are. Jarno’s lap was obviously affected by traffic, and I think Heikki got as much out of his runs as he could with the time he lost yesterday, so we’re still hopeful about getting ahead of the Virgin tomorrow, and getting both cars home.”

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Big one a écrit:Lotus aurait postulé pour entrer en GP2.

Kovalainen expects Virgin threat to grow
By Edd Straw and Steven English Sunday, August 1st 2010, 09:15 GMT

Heikki Kovalainen is expecting the battle between Lotus and Virgin to be quickest of the new teams to close up in the remaining races of the season.
Lotus had established itself dominant among Formula 1's three new outfits this season, but the team's decision to stop developing its car in favour of concentrating fully on its 2011 challenger means it is expecting Virgin to catch up.

Timo Glock qualified 19th for today's Hungarian Grand Prix, ahead of both Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli - the first time Lotus has not been the quickest new team in qualifying since the Chinese GP in April.

"It was always going to be close with Virgin because we have stopped developing the car and they are still carrying on," Kovalainen told AUTOSPORT.

"I'm not concerned. We're not too worried about it. We did a good job in qualifying, especially my car crew after missing a practice session yesterday because we found the set-up and had a decent balance, so I'm happy about that."

Kovalainen predicts a tight battle between the two teams today, and admitted that the high temperatures in Hungary could be a worry for Lotus.

"It's difficult to predict - it will be a close fight but I'm not afraid of the Virgins," he added.

"[The heat] is still a question mark for us and still a concern. We can never be 100 per cent confident given the record that we have, but if we have hot conditions it will be tough for all of the cars, so everybody will be on the limit. So far, we are within the targets on cooling."

A DAY IN THE SUN AT THE HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
Hungaroring, Hungary 1st August 2010

Lotus Racing enjoyed an excellent day in the heat of the Hungarian Grand Prix with Heikki Kovalainen finishing 14th and Jarno Trulli just behind in 15th. A very exciting race, full of incidents throughout the grid, saw the Anglo / Malaysian squad firmly consolidate their position at the top of the new team chart, sending the team into the summer break full of confidence for the challenges that lay ahead when the Championship reconvenes in late August.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) 14th, fastest lap 1.27.457 - lap 64, 1 stop - lap 15: “A great day for the team, and a great job from everyone to get us home in 14th and 15th. I think that was the maximum we could have hoped for, so we’re all really pleased. Despite starting behind Timo we were confident we could overtake him, and that’s how it panned out. My own race was fairly straightforward. I dropped a few places at the start but when the safety car came in I was brought straight in to pit and it worked out well as I jumped a couple of guys ahead. From then I was controlling my pace to the end, and making sure I didn’t make any mistakes. We head into the break very satisfied with how we performed today, and that’s great for the whole team.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) 15th, fastest lap 1.27.429 – lap 58, 1 stop – lap 20: “It’s a great day for the team. All weekend I’ve been strong, and today’s two car finish shows how hard the team’s been working. I made a very good start and managed to gain three places, and once I got ahead of Timo it was pretty comfortable staying in front. I lost out to Heikki in the strategy call during the safety car period, but that was in the best interests of the team, and as we are again ahead of our nearest rivals, we’ve achieved what we set out to today.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An excellent two car finish and once again we’re the best of the new teams. Both drivers drove strong races and Jarno had a particularly good start. Once the safety car came out we made a strategy call to keep Jarno out as we knew it would be a short period behind the safety car and this was the right strategy for the team. Unfortunately this meant Jarno lost a place to his teammate, so apologies to him, but we got the call right for the team. Heikki drove a good strong race to the end. He was bottled up behind Di Grassi at the start, but once he’d got past he was very comfortable running to the flag. All in all a really good result, and a very good day for the team.”

Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Team Principal: “It was a very exciting race and moments like this are the ones you want to cherish. We made a very good decision with Heikki when the safety car came out, and both he and Jarno drove really well to keep their positions to the end. It’s a great day for the team, and I’ve just given Tony a challenge – let’s see you beat that next time you’re on the pitwall!”

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vino_93 a écrit:et Cosworth dans l'histoire ?

LOTUS RACING ACCELERATES YOUNG DRIVER DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 6th August 2010

Lotus Racing has today confirmed its commitment to embracing young talent with the announcement that Nabil Jeffri, the 16 year old Malaysian karting prodigy currently competing in Formula BMW Pacific with Eurasia Motorsport, will be driving for the fastest new F1 team at an aero test the team will be running in early September at an undisclosed location in the UK.

Nabil has enjoyed a bright start to his motor racing career and is currently fifth in the Formula BMW Pacific championship – taking part in the aero test with Lotus Racing will give the young star invaluable experience of working at the top level in global motorsport, and will give the team a chance to put a promising young driver through his paces very early in his career away from the glare of a Grand Prix weekend.

A talented young driver, Nabil is driving for Lotus Racing as part of his sponsorship in the AirAsia ASEAN Driver Development Program. The program was created to accelerate the growth of motorsports in the region. It provides an avenue for youth in the ASEAN region to pursue their dream of becoming professional race car drivers. It offers aspiring drivers a platform to polish their talents and effectively compete with world class drivers.

Nabil said “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to drive for Lotus Racing in the aero test. It’s a big privilege to gain driving experience with the most promising new F1 team. Driving the Lotus Racing car will definitely be a priceless exposure to the F1 driving experience, and I’m looking forward to many more similar opportunities to arise as a result of being part of the AirAsia Driver Development program.”

Lotus Racing Team Principal Tony Fernandes commented: “It’s an exciting day for all of us in the Lotus Racing team – being able to give bright young talent like Nabil the chance to play an integral role in the development of our team is a recognition of his burgeoning talent, and shows that there is a clear route to the top rung of the motorsport ladder, no matter how old you are or where you are racing. I’m sure that before he gets in the hot seat he’ll be speaking to Fairuz Fauzy for some advice – Fairuz is another Malaysian sports star who, as our third driver, is showing at tracks around the world that you can reach the top if you work hard to achieve your dreams – together, they serve as inspirations to everyone in our team, and to young talent all over the world.”

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Narm a écrit:Si vous n'êtes pas au courant, voici la Lotus 125 "Exo" : en gros une F1 pour le grand public ne coûtant que 1M de $...

Par contre son origine est floue : est-ce un dérivé de la Lotus 127 ou d'une voiture crée par Lotus Car ?

Kakashi a écrit:16 ans ...
Y a pas un age minimum pour une F1 ?
Si pas, je pense que la FIA devrait se pencher la dessus

lotusien a écrit:Un jeune malais va bénéficier d'un roulage "aéro" sur la T127 début septembre. Nabil Jeffri, 16 ans est actuellement 5ème du championnat Formula BMW Pacific.
Fauzy a intérêt à se manier car la relève arrive vite!

Le communiqué complet :

LOTUS RACING ACCELERATES YOUNG DRIVER DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 6th August 2010

Lotus Racing has today confirmed its commitment to embracing young talent with the announcement that Nabil Jeffri, the 16 year old Malaysian karting prodigy currently competing in Formula BMW Pacific with Eurasia Motorsport, will be driving for the fastest new F1 team at an aero test the team will be running in early September at an undisclosed location in the UK.

Nabil has enjoyed a bright start to his motor racing career and is currently fifth in the Formula BMW Pacific championship – taking part in the aero test with Lotus Racing will give the young star invaluable experience of working at the top level in global motorsport, and will give the team a chance to put a promising young driver through his paces very early in his career away from the glare of a Grand Prix weekend.

A talented young driver, Nabil is driving for Lotus Racing as part of his sponsorship in the AirAsia ASEAN Driver Development Program. The program was created to accelerate the growth of motorsports in the region. It provides an avenue for youth in the ASEAN region to pursue their dream of becoming professional race car drivers. It offers aspiring drivers a platform to polish their talents and effectively compete with world class drivers.

Nabil said “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to drive for Lotus Racing in the aero test. It’s a big privilege to gain driving experience with the most promising new F1 team. Driving the Lotus Racing car will definitely be a priceless exposure to the F1 driving experience, and I’m looking forward to many more similar opportunities to arise as a result of being part of the AirAsia Driver Development program.”

Lotus Racing Team Principal Tony Fernandes commented: “It’s an exciting day for all of us in the Lotus Racing team – being able to give bright young talent like Nabil the chance to play an integral role in the development of our team is a recognition of his burgeoning talent, and shows that there is a clear route to the top rung of the motorsport ladder, no matter how old you are or where you are racing. I’m sure that before he gets in the hot seat he’ll be speaking to Fairuz Fauzy for some advice – Fairuz is another Malaysian sports star who, as our third driver, is showing at tracks around the world that you can reach the top if you work hard to achieve your dreams – together, they serve as inspirations to everyone in our team, and to young talent all over the world.”

Ends

Par ailleurs pour rester dans le programme formation, au sein du Junior Lotus Racing team en WSR 3.5, Nelson Panciatici a fini 4ème de la 1ère manche de Magny Cours et 5ème en Hongrie. Il est 10ème au championnat avant la reprise début septembre à Hockenheim. Son coéquipier russe Daniil Move est plus loin en 21ème position.

Je ne crois pas trop malheureusement à un avenir chez Lotus pour Pancia à part peut être une séance d'essai en fin d'année si tout va bien...

vino_93 a écrit:D'ailleurs quid du projet F3 - Lotus avec Litespeed ? Cela fonctionnera t il l'an prochain ? Ca serait pas mal de faire passer ce petit gars là en Europe dès l'an prochain, seulement il faut savoir où le mettre. En F3, classe nationale, pour débuter, ça peut être intéressant.

lotusien a écrit:

13 a écrit:L'equipe de F3 Britannique Litespeed adopte les couleurs de Lotus.

Merci de l'info.
Ce n'est pas surprenant dans la mesure ou Littespeed est partenaire de l'écurie Lotus pour la formation de jeunes pilotes en F3. C'est même étonnant que ça n'ait pas été fait plus tôt.

Le pilote actuel est Jay Bridger, britannique de 21 ans, champion national F3 2008. Il est actuellement 13è au championnat inter F3 de GB.