FORUMula1.com

[geetface9]

Just saw this:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns27287.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lotus will be testing, I mean promoting the E22 on friday and saturday. They are film days as allowed by the regulations

[Jabberwocky]

Interesting to see what Renaults reaction would be to this. Maybe they are testing revision 2 of the ERS system

Sent using NCC-1701

[Hammer278]

Do they really want to do 'film days' after seeing how the Renaults performed in Jerez. Smoking into/out of the pitlane isn't great PR....unless they run those engines at 5000rpm limited and cut huge holes all over the sidepods.

[geetface9]

Eh they gotta take what they can get since they missed jerez, even if it is totally embarrassing!

[1Lemon]

[racechick]

Here's the lotus

image.jpg

[What's Burning?]

That does look ridonkulous!

[1Lemon]

That does look ridonkulous!

The offset exhaust also looks ridonkulous

[racechick]

It's awful isn't it. What an abomination of that beautiful black and gold lotus JPS.

[NHcheese]

I prefer the one thingy... ummm, what do you call it?

Sauber's thing looks sleek and cool.

[sagi58]

Lotus: 'twin-tusk' nose advantage made clear during F1 2014 testing

Lotus's unique "twin-tusk" Formula 1 nose design has proved to be an advantage on track, according to technical director Nick Chester.

The new Lotus E22 ran in public for the first time during last week's four-day F1 Bahrain test and on-track aerodynamic data suggests it is working well.

"From the aero numbers we are getting back from the car, it does seem to be performing," said Chester. "I'm not going to give you a number on how much better we think it is than a standard low nose, but we did see what we thought was a significant benefit, which is why we chased it."

Chester admitted he is surprised no one else opted to pursue the concept, especially as staff departures meant that other teams were aware of the idea.

Scuderia Toro Rosso technical director James Key has confirmed the Italian squad had considered the idea while James Allison, who switched from Lotus to lead Ferrari's technical team, was also aware of the concept.

"Yes, in a way," said Chester when asked if he was surprised nobody had copied the idea. "I know some teams had the luck to have visibility [of the idea] quite early and I thought there might have been one or two teams maybe that would have tried it and developed it.

"The one thing that is difficult with the nose is that it is quite hard to structurally develop and crash-test it. Obviously, it is a different structure to a standard nose and it did take quite a lot of iterations to get it to a point where we were happy and it went through the crash test."



GARY ANDERSON'S VERDICT

Lotus has gone out on a limb with the twin-tusk concept to meet the new regulations covering the location of the front impact area.

This has been achieved by increasing the size of one of the wing pillar mounts. This area has to be a minimum of 9000 sq/mm with a center of area no higher than 185mm and the lowest point no lower than 135mm from the reference plane.

This means that one of the tusks, the one on the right-hand-side from the driver's perspective, has to be at least 90mm wide to meet the regulations. The second tusk is set back by something like 50mm as the regulations require a soft initial impact before reaching the point where the 9000 sq/mm area is measured.

This tusk can be narrower, but it looks very similar as I can only assume Lotus needed this extra area from the left hand pillar to pass the crash test.

It is better than the other solutions we have seen because if you add up the widths of the components, the total aerodynamic blockage is more than the other cars, but the open central section will get the airflow to the center of the car. But on the downside, it doesn't allow as much aerodynamic detail as a conventional nose. Such detail work would be very good for inducing directional changes on the airflow that is going under the car.

[LewEngBridewell]

Lotus obviously had a troubled pre-season testing period. And Melbourne was little better for them.

How long do people think it will take for Lotus to drag their way back into the points?

[LRW]

Lotus obviously had a troubled pre-season testing period. And Melbourne was little better for them.

How long do people think it will take for Lotus to drag their way back into the points?

I think they will struggle all season, but might be fighting for 10th place, come Europe.

[geetface9]

I think they'll be fine by catalunya to be honest. Look at red bull...with all their facilities and money they were still on the back foot coming into the weekend but caught up enough and pulled off a podium. Idk about Lotus' facilities and we know they have financial problems, but just look what they've done last year with it. They'll be on form soon enough!!

[LewEngBridewell]

I think they'll be fine by catalunya to be honest. Look at red bull...with all their facilities and money they were still on the back foot coming into the weekend but caught up enough and pulled off a podium. Idk about Lotus' facilities and we know they have financial problems, but just look what they've done last year with it. They'll be on form soon enough!!

Well last year, they started well with a win, and never reached such heights again. For sure, Grosjean was fighting for the win in Texas, but it was hardly a maintenance of form throughout the season.

It'll be an interesting one for them, and it was sad to see the black and gold cars scrapping out of the points in Melbourne.