Lotus Renault E21

[Apocalisse 40]

In effetti è vero anche questo, il graining è causato anche dalle basse temperature non solo dalle alte, comunque se il passo gara Lotus rimane in generale a livello dei top team potranno dire la loro, le gare non saranno certo tutte a "temperatura ideale"...

 

Le alte temperature di solito rischiano di creare blistering,

[Visitatore Rhobar_III]

Oggi devo dire che la Lotus mi ha molto impressionato.

 

Avevo dei dubbi sul fatto che potessero fare meno soste degli altri come accadeva l'anno scorso, ma evidentemente hanno conservato questa caratteristica.

La macchina è forse poco incisiva sulle gomme in qualifica per il giro singolo, ma compensa adeguatamente con la tenuta in gara.

 

Fantastico il comportamento della macchina nelle curve lente e medio-lente.

[The King of Spa 637]

Australian GP race quotes: Lotus Sunday, March 17th 2013, 10:40 GMT

 

 

Kimi Raikkonen - 1st: "I'm happy for the team and for myself also. We've had a quick car all weekend and there were no issues with it either, so we could just focus on trying different things and getting the setup how we wanted. I had a good feeling that we would be ok with the tyres after practice and the team got the strategy perfect. I made a few places at the start and then had a good battle with Lewis [Hamilton] but after that it was quite simple; probably one of my easiest wins. You can't start the season much better than winning the first race and of course we hope we can be fighting at the front of the Championship, but there's a long way to go still and we need to keep pushing hard all the way."

 

Romain Grosjean - 10th: "Something felt wrong with my car, so I have to sit down with the team and analyse where the issue came from. It felt so good all weekend until the race itself, but in the end the race was long and quite difficult for me. We know that Albert Park can be a tricky circuit and the weather has certainly not helped today. It's been a great weekend for the team with Kimi's win so it's clear there's pace in the car. Let's hope I can unlock that pace too next weekend in Sepang."

 

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "I'm very happy. After Kimi's great start we were hoping that we could achieve a podium finish, then as the race unfolded and we saw the other teams pitting - showing that they were on three-stop strategies – our position became stronger and stronger. It's a fantastic feeling to open the season in this way. Kimi drove impeccably all weekend and gave the team his all. Romain had a difficult race and we have to analyse what went wrong for him. This win is a further testament to all the hard work which goes on at Enstone and we owe tremendous thanks to each and every employee. We head to Malaysia in the best position we could be. "

 

James Allison, Technical Director: "It was a splendid thing we saw today. It's a day like this which make everything about this job worthwhile and that will be true for everyone involved with the team. It's great. We were a little deflated after qualifying, as we knew the car had better pace than our grid positions suggested. Nevertheless we were confident from the long run pace we'd seen on Friday that we could make a two-stop strategy work. It was lovely to see the lap times ticking off metronomically without any real fear that the tyres weren't going to go the distance. Hopefully we can repeat Kimi's fantastic performance again next weekend with both cars."

 

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "As we've seen this weekend the field is incredibly close and each detail counts even more, so we've worked hard with the team to exploit every last area of performance from the engine over the winter period. In the race we were aggressive with the fuel strategy to maintain a healthy gap over Fernando and Kimi did a great job with managing the tyres. Romain also came in strongly at the end to get a double points' finish. A fantastic way to start the season!."

[The King of Spa 637]

When asked if he believed Raikkonen's victory in Australia meant Lotus was definitely in a position to gun for the championship this year, Boullier said: "No.

 

"The only thing that I am focusing on is that we have clearly stated we want to be a top team.

 

"Starting the season like this means we will fight with everything for the championship, but it is too early to say anything other than Lotus is a top team now.

 

"And if every year we are putting ourselves in a situation where we can compete for wins, then you can build up from the nice momentum to maybe be champion again."

 

autosport.com

[The King of Spa 637]

Quando alla Lotus correvano gli a-ha

 

[The King of Spa 637]

Via f1technical.net

[KR2007 57]

Sembra siano riusciti a risolvere anche il problema della velocità di punta dell'anno scorso, oggi Raikkonen è stato il più veloce alla speed trap con 306 .4

[The King of Spa 637]

Già, adesso bisogna vedere quanto tempo impiega la federazione a capire come e perchè la vettura spancia con il pieno e senza ho letto ipotesi varie, legali o meno, una di queste parla di un sistema figlio di quello vietato del 2012, vietato prima dei test, che agisce in altro modo e in altro loco, o un sistema simile a quello Mercedes ma più efficiente.

[joseki 1232]

Ho letto anche di un serbatoio a sezioni con pompe separate, in modo da poter selezionare in gara quale usare per tenere lo stesso bilanciamento in tutte le fasi di gara.

[IcemanKR9 2]

Oh ma figurati, se la Ferrari è minacciata da qualcuno, quel qualcuno deve per forza essere irregolare

Ma tanto la Lotus doveva essere non competitiva già a settembre della scorsa stagione... tutto questo tram tram non lo capisco per una E21 che farà si e no altre 2 gare buone... se non 1 o 0...

[Visitatore Rhobar_III]

Oggi le Lotus in assoluto sono state le più competitive nel T1.

 

Nel T2 perdevano abbastanza dalla Red Bull e anche dalla Ferrari, ma nel T3 (con i due rettilinei) tendevano di nuovo a recuperare sulla Red Bull, con tempi simili alla Ferrari.

[The King of Spa 637]

Prost consigliere Renault F1

[The King of Spa 637]

Malaysia qualifying quotes: Lotus Saturday, March 23rd 2013, 12:07 GMT

 

 

Kimi Raikkonen - 7th: "We weren't quick enough on the intermediates so I don't think we could have found much more time in the wet today. For sure I wanted more but it is what it is and I hope we'll do better on Sunday. It's obviously disappointing to lose three places on the grid, but we'll have to see what happens in the race. I have no idea what the weather will do, but it will be the same for everyone."

 

Romain Grosjean - 11th: "The car felt better today for sure and we were looking good after free practice earlier this afternoon. We should have easily had both cars in the top ten, but unfortunately the skies opened at just the wrong time for me. My first run in Q2 was on scrubbed tyres and then as soon as we came in to fit the new ones it started raining, so for now they stay new. It's a shame but there's a long race ahead of us tomorrow and we now have extra sets of fresh dry tyres in our pocket so hopefully we can use them well."

[Apocalisse 40]

Sul bagnato non mi sembra competitivo, forse hanno puntato tutto sull'asciutto.

[The King of Spa 637]

Malaysian GP race quotes: Lotus Sunday, March 24th 2013, 13:22 GMT

 

 

Kimi Raikkonen - 7th: "Although the car felt very good on Friday, yesterday and today have been pretty difficult. Since Saturday morning it has not been behaving as we expected for some reason, especially in the wet where we really struggled for grip. It was a tough race and I lost part of my front wing at the start which didn't help, but at least we scored a few points which is better than coming away with nothing. If we can get the car back to how it was in Australia then I'm sure we'll be at the front again."

 

Romain Grosjean - 6th: "I think we can be quite happy with the result today. It was a tough race, starting wet and finishing dry, but that's what you expect in Malaysia. I spent a lot of time stuck behind Felipe [Massa] in the middle phase of the race and I'm sure if I could have passed him earlier then I would have stayed ahead, but by the end my tyres were finished so it was best just to let him through. It's not the result we would have wanted at the beginning of the weekend, but at the end of the day it's more points for the team and we'll try to come back stronger in Shanghai."

 

Eric Boullier, team principal: "It's not been the best day for us, but when you take into account our qualifying positions and the difficult start for both drivers I think the points we take for sixth and seventh is a solid result. Unfortunately with the conditions today we didn't see the full potential of the car, and the time we lost at the start was always going to be difficult to catch up. To finish within a reasonable distance of the leaders was a good effort from both drivers and also the team in terms of our strategy. With a normal weekend I'm sure we can expect some stronger results."

 

James Allison, Technical Director: "This weekend feels like a case of what might have been. We had a car on Friday which looked extremely promising, but unfortunately that didn't translate into the sort of result we'd expect. Qualifying 10th and 11th - particularly in the wet – was not an ideal start, with the consequence that within seven laps we were around thirty seconds from the front. Our progress thereafter was actually quite respectable so it's frustrating to have lost touch with the race at such an early stage, but I'm confident we'll be delivering some stronger results in the coming races."

 

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "A double points finish today for the team after some good racing. Sepang is a hard challenge for the engines with high top speeds needed for the straights and low speed driveability for the hairpin turns, plus managing the fuel consumption is tricky considering the changeable weather. We moved to a second engine this weekend to give more flexibility later in the season – looking at how tight things are at the front having this margin could be useful later on."

[The King of Spa 637]

Entrambi i piloti Lotus dopo 4 giri stavano a 20" dal primo. dopo la prima sosta erano 30, aldilà della prestazione opaca di Raikkonen e della buona (relativa ai due) di Grosjean la vettura non m'è sembrata a suo agio, credo ci sia poco da salvare oggi se non il fatto di aver fatto qualche punto, poca roba e troppo lontani dai diretti avversari.

Modificato 24 Marzo, 2013 da The King of Spa

[Apocalisse 40]

Entrambi i piloti Lotus dopo 4 giri stavano a 20" dal primo. dopo la prima sosta erano 30, aldilà della prestazione opaca di Raikkonen e della buona (relativa ai due) di Grosjean la vettura non m'è sembrata a suo agio, credo ci sia poco da salvare oggi se non il fatto di aver fatto qualche punto, poca roba e troppo lontani dai diretti avversari.

 

Sul bagnato erano imbarazzanti. Sull'asciutto secondo me avrebbero potuto dire la loro.

Lo so che con i se e con i ma sono tutti bravi ma se fossero partiti vicino ai primi con gara asciutta si sarebbero giocati la vittoria nonostante il non perfetto bilanciamento.

[Visitatore Rhobar_III]

Oggi non mi hanno entusiasmato.

 

La macchina era in crisi di assetto e i piloti ci mettevano davvero troppo tempo per superare gli avversari.

[F.126ck 2545]

Gros non tantissimo Kimi si, si vedeva che non era a posto, perdeva tutto in uscita curva

[The King of Spa 637]

Property magnate fuels Lotus' F1 title campaign

 

For the past six months rumours have been swirling around that the Lotus F1 team was looking for new investment. Stories behind the scenes suggested that it was in financial difficulty and although no hard evidence of this ever came to light, the owners' desire to exit became very clear. According to a news story in the Telegraph by Pitpass' business editor Christian Sylt, they now have a potential exit route.

 

Lotus is on a roll at the moment after Kimi Raikkonen won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix following his third place in the championship last year. The team has even higher ambitions and Sylt's report reveals that in a bid to achieve them last month it appointed to its board Andrew Ruhan, one of Britain's most successful property investors.

 

Ruhan made his name in 1998 when he bought the former Financial Times{/} print works in East London and turned the building into a telecoms data centre. Further investments in computer systems warehouses followed and as boss of data centre operator Sentrum he spearheaded the sale of three facilities to American company Digital Realty for £720m ($1.1bn) in June last year. He is no stranger to motorsport either as he is a keen amateur sports car racer who won the GT Cup championship in 2011.

 

Ruhan has not invested in the team but he presents the exit route which Lotus is looking for. The team is wholly-owned by private equity firm Genii Capital which was founded by Gerard Lopez, an early investor in Skype. In January he said "if there are investors who want to enter with some shares we are ready."

 

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier revealed to Sylt that "Andrew Ruhan was indeed recently appointed as a director to the board of Lotus F1 Team limited. He is bringing his business acumen to the table and his passion for and knowledge of the Formula One industry but there is no financial backing involved as far as I am aware."

 

The Lotus car company is a partner of the team and in October last year it was rumoured that the marque's Malaysian parent Proton would buy into the F1 outfit. However, this was denied and Boullier recently said that Genii has "showed their commitment and they will commit in the future to financially back this team."

 

Raikkonen's performance last year gave Lotus the best value for money of all F1 teams. It spent an average of £360,000 ($550,000) on each of the points it scored compared to £450,000 ($680,000) for Red Bull Racing which won the championship.

 

Lotus' latest accounts are for the year-ending 31 December 2011 and show that it burned up a £20.8m pre-tax loss despite revenue accelerating 41% to £115.7m. Although its costs increased £12.1m to £134.4m this was a long way off the £176.2m spent by Red Bull which is why Lotus is F1's value for money champion.

 

It remains to be seen whether Ruhan will give it a financial boost but there is no doubt that he is on pole position to do so.