With Finland Behind Him

A ten-part F1 Big Picture series celebrating the return of F1 in Bahrain. Heikki Kovalainen awaits the call to get in the car for Free Practice. The Lotus driver finished ahead of teammate Trulli in both sessions, and although the new team were quite a way off the pace, Heikki posted some of the better times of the new entrants.

Credit: Lotus Racing

Big Hugs in Bahrain

Jarno Trulli hugs a Toyota team member after achieving his fourth career pole position at the Bahrain International Circuit in 2009. Timo Glock helped the Toyota team lock out the front row with a second place qualifying spot. Trulli went on to claim 3rd position in the race whilst Glock finished 7th.

The Toyota team won’t be present at this year’s Bahrain GP. Jarno can be found a long way from pole position at Lotus F1 Racing, and Timo finds himself in a similar position with Virgin Racing.

Credit: Toyota Motorsport GmbH

Lotus Racing Barcelona Test Day 3

The morning sunshine gave way to grey conditions and light rain in Barcelona as the Lotus Racing T127 completed a successful third day of testing. By lunchtime Jarno Trulli had already completed 60 laps, and went on consistently throughout the day to finish on a total of 102 laps. The team completed a full race distance and were satisfied with the timings and quality of the day’s activity.

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer, commented on today’s test, saying; “Another productive day with Jarno; over a hundred laps completed with no real mechanical issues and Jarno was able to complete the full race distance in the mix of wet and dry weather.

“We successfully completed our whole programme with the changeable conditions and have had two very useful days with Jarno in the car, with a very clear set up direction from him. Now we’re looking forward to further refining the balance of the car with Heikki tomorrow.”

Heikki takes the hot seat for the final day’s testing before the season starts in earnest in Bahrain.

26-Feb-10: Hulkenberg Puts Williams on Top in Barcelona

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Welcome to F1 Minute, it’s the 26th February 2010.

Today it was Nico Hulkenberg’s turn to post the fastest time at the test in Barcelona, as the Williams led the way beating Fernando Alonso by just a couple of tenths of a second. There were several red flags throughout the day, two of which caused by Trulli in the Lotus. He finished up second to last, though, with of course Virgin Racing at the bottom of the timesheets. Glock will have been happy to get a whopping 52 laps completed though, even if that is nothing compared to Alonso’s 134.

Talking of Glock, the German has been talking about his position within the new team and  says: “It’s a really good opportunity for me and it’s good that I can step into a role like this. At Toyota, Jarno with his experience was a bit more preferred. Now I feel at home and I have a lot of fun to develop and bring the team forward.” Virgin Racing are also confident that a serious aerodynamic upgrade before Bahrain will show their real pace, and that designing the car solely by CFD wasn’t a mistake.

That’s all for now, I will be back with an F1 Minute testing update tomorrow.

Lotus Racing Barcelona Test Day Two Report

A productive day for Lotus Racing as Jarno Trulli took the Lotus Cosworth T127 challenger onto the Barcelona track and completed another 70 laps. With strong sunshine and dry weather conditions, the Lotus Racing team were again first out on track and ready to begin testing, developing and improving the car.

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne gave his end of day round up; “It was a productive day in terms of set up direction with Jarno. We were able to identify some problems with the set up in the car and establish clear direction to improve it. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of time to come from the car.

” We had a couple of minor hydraulics issues which stopped the car on track, but nothing major, so all in all it was a productive day and we’re aiming to continue in the same vein tomorrow.”

Jarno Trulli again picks up the wheel for day three of testing, and the team are looking forward to developing and progressing the car. Heikki Kovalainen then takes over on Sunday, for the final day of testing.

Lotus Racing Barcelona Test Day One Report

76 more laps for Fairuz Fauzy on the first day of the Barcelona test marks another satisfactory day for Lotus Racing. In dry, sunny conditions the team completed all its objectives for the day and are now looking forward to seeing Jarno Trulli take over driving duties tomorrow and Saturday.

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne gave his thoughts on the day’s on track action, saying “It was a very productive day – 76 laps with no mechanical worries on the car. In the morning we conducted some engine LAMDA running which we completed successfully. We ran through a series of system set up checks, completed our first starts and evaluated a number of other control systems on the car, as well as monitoring temperatures and pressures throughout the car.

“All in all this was a successful day both on the track and we ticked off a lot of behind the scenes tasks ahead of the first race. Fairuz did a very good job today, with no mistakes, and we were able to complete our whole program.”

Jarno Trulli takes over tomorrow with more dry running ahead of the Lotus Racing team.

Lotus Racing Jerez Test Day 4 – Jarno Trulli

The sun shone early on in Jerez as Italy’s Jarno Trulli made his Lotus Racing debut, leaving the garage at precisely 9am to begin his day behind the wheel. Aiming to complete 140 laps in total, Jarno finally pitted at 4.40 pm having run all day and actually completing 141 laps.

After adjusting quickly to his new office, Jarno set to work and by the time he had completed his targeted number of laps he said, “It was a very positive day. I’m really happy about my first day testing with Lotus Racing and I was very lucky to have everything right on the car today with no major issues. We were able to put a lot of mileage on the car and get a lot of information out of it. I had the chance to start developing a real feel for the car and it’s good to be here.”

Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer summed up the final day in Jerez, and the total four days in Spain, saying: “An excellent day today, concentrating on reliability and race pace. 141 laps from Jarno is a great effort when you consider it’s his first day driving this year and also a great effort from the team who worked all night to get the car prepared. Overall it’s been a very encouraging four days. The main aim of the test was reliability and over the last two days of dry running we have found some directions in set up that will enable us to concentrate on the pace of the car in Barcelona.”

Lotus Racing Jerez Test Day 3 – 19th February

Finally the sun returned to Jerez after a torrential downpour last night left the local roads strewn with rocks, and the journey in and out of the circuit tricky for many. Heikki Kovalainen resumed driving duties, for the first time running the Lotus Cosworth T127 on slick tyres, and by the end of the day had completed 68 laps.

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer, gave his thoughts on the first dry day’s testing, saying: “A reasonably good day today and the best thing was getting our first dry running in. We had a small problem this morning with a clutch sensor but as we wanted to wait until conditions had dried up that suited us well. We concentrated on long runs and started to work with the two tyre types, which we obviously haven’t been able to do before, so overall good progress.”

Italy’s Jarno Trulli takes over tomorrow (Saturday) for the final day’s testing before the team decamps to Barcelona for the final F1 test before the season starts in earnest in Bahrain.

12-Feb-10: Lotus Launch the T127 in London

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This is F1 Minute and it’s the 12th February 2010.

Lotus launched their new car today at an afternoon event in London. The T127 is a striking green and yellow, bringing forward the livery from the original Lotus team of the 50s and 60s. Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen were both present for the launch, as was CTO Mike Gascoyne. Mike said: “We are looking in really good shape. We have to improve the pace of our car and the results from the wind tunnel, but that will come with time.” They are due to star testing in Jerez next week.

Over in Jerez today, the rain came down once again. Alguersuari posted the fastest time before the bad weather began, and no one could top it, giving Toro Rosso the glory. Pedro de la Rosa was second for Sauber with Sutil third for Force India. Hamilton was slowest of the significant times, finishing 9th and about four seconds off the pace. Once again, though, it was Virgin at the bottom. They had a tough day, with di Grassi only hitting the track two hours before the end of the day, and even then he only completed 8 laps. Testing continues tomorrow, and I’ll bring you an extra F1 Minute of the action then.

Lotus Racing Brief History

Lotus Racing was officially born on September 12th 2009 when the FIA granted the new team its entry into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Headed up by Team Principal Tony Fernandes, supported by Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and Chief Executive Riad Asmat, the team made its base in Hingham, Norfolk, near to the home of Group Lotus, a few miles up the Norfolk roads in Hethel.

Lotus Racing’s origins began before September, with Tony and fellow shareholders Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin leading a consortium of Malaysian business interests who joined forces to provide initial funding for the nascent team under the parent company 1Malaysia Racing Team banner. Tony immediately began appointing key senior management positions, including Riad Asmat joining as Chief Executive Officer and Lee Chung Han as Chief Financial Officer, while Mike Gascoyne began work on the technical program in the UK and across Europe.

As the team moved into its new Hingham, UK home work began immediately on building the 2010 cars, with Mike directing the technical efforts across centres of excellence in design, wind tunnel, composite manufacturing and a host of ancillary support services throughout Europe in an intensive effort to be ready for the rapidly approaching season ahead. With the car build process under way, a similar effort was also being undertaken in creating the team itself, with new staff being taken on every day, and the fabric of the team’s identity being created from scratch.

In December one of the first major milestones was reached, with a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur unveiling the first Lotus Racing drivers – Italy’s Jarno Trulli, Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen and Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy. The combination of race winning experience, youth and passion give the team a good platform from which to establish the true pace of the car and have a fighting chance of exceeding expectations in the season ahead.

December brought the UK’s worst winter for 30 years and as staff numbers at the Hingham factory swelled work continued apace. Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz all spent time in snowy Norfolk, having their seats fitted and familiarising themselves with their new Race Engineers, pit crews and support staff. Chassis 01 passed all its crash tests in early January and soon afterwards arrived at the factory for the engineers and mechanics to get to work on the actual build process. As the team’s hours in the factory increased, the car itself began to take shape, and by early February a few all night sessions saw the months of hard work culminate in the first Cosworth engine fire up in the factory.

Two days later the now 130 strong staff gathered in the factory’s race bays to see the car in its final build specification for the very first time. As the final pieces of bodywork were fixed in place, the Lotus Racing team saw, for the very first time, the car’s green and yellow livery, bringing to mind some of motor racing’s most iconic images and leaving everyone involved with the impression that not only was the car technically beautiful, but also would exceed the expectations of motor racing fans around the world.

The next day the team moved to a very cold and snowy Silverstone for shakedown – a day where system checks and engineering procedures worked in harmony to finally see the Lotus Cosworth T127, as it had by then been designated, break cover on track for the very first time, with Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy at the wheel.

As the car’s speed built up so did the atmosphere amongst the 65 people amassed on site – five incredibly intensive months of hard work and pressure had paid off handsomely, with a stunning car on track, and the wail of the Cosworth V8 screaming around the Northamptonshire countryside.

Next stop London and the launch …

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