Lotus has shown off the first official images of its new 2010 Formula One car.
The team’s first wind tunnel model team has been completed, but Lotus’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne admitted that despite the model’s completion being a great achievement, there was still plenty of work to do before it gets to the grid.
See the hi-res 2010 Lotus F1 car pics
Lotus has developed a car that follows the revised 2010 rules (chiefly narrower front tyres and larger fuel tanks due to the banning of refuelling).
“There is no escaping the challenges that we face simply to get the car ready for the first race of the next season,” said Gascoyne. “But I am confident that we are up to the task in hand.
“Our target is to get the car ready for a roll out by the middle of February so that we can carry out preseason testing in preparation for Bahrain in mid-March.”
Decisions about drivers for next year are yet to be made, but it is understood that experienced Toyota driver Jarno Trulli is favourite to lead the team.
The drivers Gascoyne is looking for need to help develop the car during the season, as well as “extract every little bit of performance from the car at all times”, in order for the team to make progress on the track.
Jennie Aitken
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