The Lotus F1 Team will be absent from the first winter test of 2014 at the Jerez circuit.
In an interview with the team, technical director Nick Chester confirmed the news that they will skip the opening test in favour of developing the car further before its debut in Bahrain.
With just three weeks until the V6 Turbo engines are fired up for the first time in Spain, teams have had to make the difficult decision between developing the new car and testing it out on track. Lotus has gone for the former option.
"We’re going to keep our car under wraps a little longer than some other teams," he confirmed. "We’ve decided that attending the Jerez test isn’t ideal for our build and development programme. We are likely to unveil the car before attending the Bahrain tests, and in Bahrain we should really be able to put the car through its paces in representative conditions."
Chester revealed that Lotus has passed the majority of the mandatory FIA crash tests, with just the nose test left to be completed. "We’ve made very good progress with the various homologation tests which took place before Christmas including chassis squeeze and side impact loading tests as well as the rear crash structure, meaning we just have the nose test to complete the car’s homologation.
"We’ve undertaken chassis fits for Romain and Pastor. Certainly, our partners who have seen the car have reported themselves to be very impressed with the layout and various solutions to the new technical challenges."
The raft of new regulation changes will make testing even more important in 2014, as reliability is expected to be a key factor.
However, Chester is optimistic about the potential of their new car. "From our perspective the figures look promising and development has been positive," he admitted. "That said, we are very much working with very little idea of what the other teams are doing. This is the first year of radically different regulations which means that all teams are developing their cars along potentially quite different avenues.
"It’s fascinating for us engineers and I hope it is fascinating for the fans too. We think we have a very good solution to the challenge and hopefully this will be seen when the E22 turns its wheels in anger."
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado will race for the team this season. Has the decision to miss the first test put them on the back foot already? We will only find out when the racing starts.
For a look at some of the major 2014 technical regulation changes that the teams will tackle this season, go here: http://bit.ly/1cR43FZ
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© Octane Photographic |
With just three weeks until the V6 Turbo engines are fired up for the first time in Spain, teams have had to make the difficult decision between developing the new car and testing it out on track. Lotus has gone for the former option.
"We’re going to keep our car under wraps a little longer than some other teams," he confirmed. "We’ve decided that attending the Jerez test isn’t ideal for our build and development programme. We are likely to unveil the car before attending the Bahrain tests, and in Bahrain we should really be able to put the car through its paces in representative conditions."
Chester revealed that Lotus has passed the majority of the mandatory FIA crash tests, with just the nose test left to be completed. "We’ve made very good progress with the various homologation tests which took place before Christmas including chassis squeeze and side impact loading tests as well as the rear crash structure, meaning we just have the nose test to complete the car’s homologation.
"We’ve undertaken chassis fits for Romain and Pastor. Certainly, our partners who have seen the car have reported themselves to be very impressed with the layout and various solutions to the new technical challenges."
The raft of new regulation changes will make testing even more important in 2014, as reliability is expected to be a key factor.
However, Chester is optimistic about the potential of their new car. "From our perspective the figures look promising and development has been positive," he admitted. "That said, we are very much working with very little idea of what the other teams are doing. This is the first year of radically different regulations which means that all teams are developing their cars along potentially quite different avenues.
"It’s fascinating for us engineers and I hope it is fascinating for the fans too. We think we have a very good solution to the challenge and hopefully this will be seen when the E22 turns its wheels in anger."
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado will race for the team this season. Has the decision to miss the first test put them on the back foot already? We will only find out when the racing starts.
For a look at some of the major 2014 technical regulation changes that the teams will tackle this season, go here: http://bit.ly/1cR43FZ
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