Enstone outfit confident new car "represents a massive step forward"
Tuesday 27 January 2015 19:32, UK
Lotus have provided a first glimpse of their 2015 challenger, the E23 Hybrid, and predicted it will trigger a vast improvement in their on-track fortunes this year.
The car is the first the team have produced since switching to Mercedes power after scoring just 10 points during the 2014 season when their engines were supplied by Renault.
In its most notable design feature, the E23 has been presented with a conventional nose - a clear departure from the split 'twin tusk' nose of its predecessor.
According to technical chief Nick Chester, the new car “represents a massive step forward for us. It’s no secret that we struggled with last year’s car so we’ve targeted every area that caused us an issue. We’ve made strong progress in the wind tunnel as well as in areas such as packaging and cooling. We expect the E23 to perform far, far better than its predecessor.”
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado will continue to drive for the team in 2015, with Jolyon Palmer appointed the team's third driver following his GP2 championship win last year.
The Enstone-based team, which has been dogged by financial strife in recent years, are yet to confirm whether they will participate in the upcoming Jerez test, the first of three pre-season meetings this winter. They are, however, confident that they have fixed many of the flaws that bedevilled its predecessor, the under-performing E22.
“In terms of what’s new, obviously a massive change for us is a new Power Unit supplier," said Chester. "We made this change as it looked and looks to be the one area of the car which could bring us the greatest performance gain. It’s not just performance, but reliability and driveability as well as packaging and cooling too.
"We learnt a lot in many areas of the car over the course of 2014 so there are many lessons which have been applied. We know we’ve made a big step. We won’t know how our car will fare in relative terms until we’re out in action at a Grand Prix, but we certainly expect to be much more competitive than last year.”
The Sky Sports F1 Online team will be providing live commentary of all three winter tests, starting in Jerez on Sunday, with live updates from trackside also on Sky Sports News HQ.
