Lotus will make it big in Formula One racing: Mike Gascoyne
Although the freshly wrought Lotus team yet remains pointless on this year’s standings table, the team’s technical director Mike Gascoyne is confident that his squad will soon be able to catch up with the game’s big guns. Without doubt, competition at the highest echelons of motor-racing is far from mincemeat. Yet, for newly formulated teams like Lotus, being pitted against financially robust competitors who have weathered the ruthlessly relentless storms inherent to the Formula One circuit for decades is a challenge infinitely magnified. And for the Lotus crew, the burden of anticipation could not have been more substantial.
After nearly 15 years of absence from the sport, the name Lotus has once again witnessed a rebirth in the Formula One paddocks. A squad constructed originally by Englishman Colin Chapman some sixty years ago, the Lotus family had boasted the likes of the legendary Ayrton Senna, Graham Hill and Jim Clark. With 7 world championships to its name, the team became one of F1’s most accomplished contender’s before pulling out of the race in 1994 after competing at the year’s Australian Grand Prix. Lotus’s comeback after more than a decade of absence has been conspired by a partnership of Malaysian entrepreneurs including Air India Principal Tony Fernandes and the country’s government. The deal went ahead with the backing of Colin Chapman’s family.
World renowned F1 engineer, Mike Gascoyne, was enlisted on the pay-sheet to whip into shape the squad’s T127 Cosworth-stimulated car. The Lotus machine was unveiled in a fashionably big-budget ceremony unlike the hastily organized initiations of the other newcomers, HRT (Hispania Racing F1 Team) and Virgin. Unlike Lotus, its companion “newbies” had to face a battle against the timelines to ensure the necessary regulations were met. The Lotus T127 was already in shape five months subsequent to the go-ahead sounded by the Formula One governing body, the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile), for Lotus to begin preparations for a comeback. Gascoyne’s creation was touted as feasible, convenient and as well as amenable to any necessary technical enhancements. The cars timely inauguration was also a huge bonus considering the team was thus able to participate in a couple of assessment drives before the season got underway.
The team’s first-choice driver selection was as meticulously conducted as the assembly of its car. Ex-Toyota front-man Jarno Trulli and the once-McLaren competitor Heikki Kovalainen were invited to become part of the well thought-out bid. By adding these two seasoned yet success-thirsty racers to their ranks, the team ensured it was well armed to wage a meaningful inaugural campaign and give the F1 reigning elite a run for its money. And Lotus’s leading men did not disappoint. At the season’s very first competitive showdown in Bahrain, the Grand Prix-winning duo notched up the 20th and 21st places in the qualifying round under the expert eyes of ex-Lotus greats and world champions Nigel Mansell, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi. Although modest by regular F1 standards, the result was solid enough to pacify the expectations of team boss, Tony Fernandes, who announced he was “over the moon”.
Lotus once more outperformed their newcomer colleagues HRT and Virgin at the Australian Grand Prix later in the year where Kovalainen managed to grab the 13th position. The Malaysian campaign was less fortunate for the Lotus men. Kovalainen was brought down by mechanical complications in his T127 where Trulli got involved in an accident midway through the race. The team’s fortunes brightened at the season’s Chinese event where Kovalainen and Trulli finally managed to make the tournaments leading men sweat. Kovalainen benefited from a sensible pick of tyres to ultimately outpace Nico Rosberg of Williams.
After being let down by technical difficulties at the 2010 contests in Barcelona, Monaco and Turkey, the team revived its form in style at the Canadian Grand Prix. Konalainen put on a remarkable show at Montreal to qualify just behind BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi. The Finn was no less impressive in the actual race where he was able to present a significant challenge for Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. With such results under its belt, Lotus is surely one of the squads to look out for in the upcoming event in Valencia.
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