Post a forgetful season in the 2014 Formula One World Championship finishing eighth in the constructors title with a meager ten points, Lotus looks to garner spotlight in the 2015 season with their new race car.
Unveiling the new E23 Hybrid, the biggest change in their new F1 racing car has been the change of engine switching loyalties from Renault to Mercedes. The new E23 also gets a new suspension after the FIA banned their E22 FRIC setup right in the middle of the 2014 season. The nose of the car has also been revised to a more standard design as against the twin tusk setup of last year
A very positive Nick Chester (Technical Director), said “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. 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.”
CEO Mathew Carter echoed Chester’s word stating “We are confident the new car will enable a huge leap forward. We are full of optimism going into the new season. It is time to put the disappointment of last season behind us and benefit from 12 months of hard work; we are ready to return to our rightful place at the pinnacle of the sport.”
The first pre-season test of the car would progress from 1st to 4th of February at Jerez with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado behind the wheel for the 2015 season.