The Lotus F1 Team revealed their 2013 F1 Machine, the E21, online today (28th January).
The car keeps with the stepped nose, which caused much controversy last year, as well as debuting a new addition of red to the livery. Enstone's latest creation was revealed online via a live stream on the squads YouTube channel and on Sky Sports News.
It was a change from the normal press only launch at the first test, where drivers pull off the covers in front of team members, photographers and members of the media. Thousands flocked to the Video Sharing site to watch the launch, where they could comment and interact. Twitter was also a buzz too, everyone excited for the first launch.
The team already admitted that their originally planned marque at the Enstone factory suffered some "aerodynamic difficulties", causing a rush to get a venue sorted with just a few hours left before the launch.
The team launched the car at the Lotus F1 Team race bay. Drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean took the covers off the car, showing the base car that will be heavily developed as the season goes on. They avoided the "modesty panel" that was available to cover the nose step, which according to technical director James Allison was due to the additional weight.
The rear of the car looks very sleek and sculpted, as the team continue to the Coanda exhaust further. The car also has slimmer side pods and engine cover, as they take advantage of their aerodynamic strong suit from 2012. Due to the relatively stable rule changes, the E21 looks to be a strong evolution of its predecessor.
Sky Sports News' Craig Slater hosted the event, and spoke to Gerard Lopez, who said "Our expectation is to do better than we did last year, which is quite a lofty expectation, but that is what we are shooting for,"
Eric Boulier added "Third place is at least an achievement we would like to have next year. We expect to continue with the momentum we had from 2012 as both drivers are more eager.
"We have delivered a nice car and are really really keen to do better. We will fight with everything we can to be top three."
Technical Director James Allison said "I can assure you that we’ve done a lot, the whole team has been putting
their heart and soul into this thing for quite some time, there’s a lot gone into it and it’s going to be an exciting car.
"The rules for 2013 are very, very similar to 2012, so you can expect a lot of family resemblances. But the devil is in the detail and the detail in this car adds up to a lot of performance."
The car also shows off some new sponsors, including Coca-Cola's energy drink brand "Burn".
Lotus had a strong 2012 season, claiming a victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and scored 10 podium finishes between 2007 champion Raikkonen and his less experienced team mate Grosjean. Both drivers look to improve in 2013 and consistently challenge the front runners, with wins being the main aim.
Raikkonen said "It’s not going to be easy to improve on what we did already last year, but that’s our aim.” He then added "not just for the drivers but for the team also, and hopefully we can do it."
Romain Grosjean said at the launch "The team did our best to improve from last year. We had a beautiful car to drive last year" before adding "everyone wants more, that is what we will try to achieve."
You can see interviews that the Lotus F1 Team did with Kimi and Romain here:
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| Images (c) Lotus F1 Team |
It was a change from the normal press only launch at the first test, where drivers pull off the covers in front of team members, photographers and members of the media. Thousands flocked to the Video Sharing site to watch the launch, where they could comment and interact. Twitter was also a buzz too, everyone excited for the first launch.
The team already admitted that their originally planned marque at the Enstone factory suffered some "aerodynamic difficulties", causing a rush to get a venue sorted with just a few hours left before the launch.
The team launched the car at the Lotus F1 Team race bay. Drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean took the covers off the car, showing the base car that will be heavily developed as the season goes on. They avoided the "modesty panel" that was available to cover the nose step, which according to technical director James Allison was due to the additional weight.
The rear of the car looks very sleek and sculpted, as the team continue to the Coanda exhaust further. The car also has slimmer side pods and engine cover, as they take advantage of their aerodynamic strong suit from 2012. Due to the relatively stable rule changes, the E21 looks to be a strong evolution of its predecessor.
Sky Sports News' Craig Slater hosted the event, and spoke to Gerard Lopez, who said "Our expectation is to do better than we did last year, which is quite a lofty expectation, but that is what we are shooting for,"
Eric Boulier added "Third place is at least an achievement we would like to have next year. We expect to continue with the momentum we had from 2012 as both drivers are more eager.
"We have delivered a nice car and are really really keen to do better. We will fight with everything we can to be top three."
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| The full 2013 line up, including test/reserve drivers |
"The rules for 2013 are very, very similar to 2012, so you can expect a lot of family resemblances. But the devil is in the detail and the detail in this car adds up to a lot of performance."
Lotus had a strong 2012 season, claiming a victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and scored 10 podium finishes between 2007 champion Raikkonen and his less experienced team mate Grosjean. Both drivers look to improve in 2013 and consistently challenge the front runners, with wins being the main aim.
Raikkonen said "It’s not going to be easy to improve on what we did already last year, but that’s our aim.” He then added "not just for the drivers but for the team also, and hopefully we can do it."
Romain Grosjean said at the launch "The team did our best to improve from last year. We had a beautiful car to drive last year" before adding "everyone wants more, that is what we will try to achieve."
You can see interviews that the Lotus F1 Team did with Kimi and Romain here:
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