Sorry if this one is a bit sloppy, I am a bit knackered at the moment 
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Team Lotus season review
Lotus was the big success story among the three new teams this year. It was the pacesetter in its group virtually all last season, wrapped up the critical 10th place in the constructors' standings, and snapped at the midfielders' heels on several occasions.
Having secured Renault engines, Red Bull transmission systems plus KERS and some handy new technical signings for this year, it looks set for a very promising future .
As part of a major technical team upgrade many Force India staff were leaving their jobs to join the team and aid with car development. The team in October last year, confirmed that it will build a dedicated wind-tunnel facility at its British base. In addition, the team and its GP2 outfit Team AirAsia will expand operations at the existing factory site to take over a further two units, giving Team Air Asia a permanent home alongside the Lotus operation.
The FIA released the entry list for the 2011 season in which Lotus Racing were listed under the "Team Lotus" name.To show that the team was pressing ahead with its plans, they rebranded their factory, changed their official website and introduced a new team logo. Chief executive Riad Asmat announced that he expected the car to be a genuine midfield runner and challenge for point-scoring positions. Jarno Trulli said that the Lotus-sponsored Renault team had given Team Lotus plenty of motivation to perform more consistently. Lotus announced that they were going to launch their new car, the Lotus T128 – online, instead of a physical launch, and was unveiled online on 31 January 2011.
In March, it was confirmed that Luiz Razia and Davide Valsecchi – drivers for Lotus' sister outfit Team AirAsia in the GP2 Series – would join the team as third driver and test driver respectively, and will take part in a number of Friday practice sessions during the season. Ricardo Teixeira also joined as a second test driver. On 22 March 2011, Karun Chandhok also joined as the team's reserve driver.
It was far from a flawless season, with reliability issues hard to shake off, and a row developing over the Lotus name which could yet see Tony Fernandes' squad rebranded over the summer, but overall, this was a triumphant second full season for whatever this alliance between Malaysian and Norfolk talent ends up being called long-term.
Although the relative pace of the T128 was an improvement on that of its predecessor, the team were unable to bridge the gap to the lower midfield over the course of the season, generally being slower than closest rivals Toro Rosso and Williams but solidly ahead of HRT and Marussia Virgin, with Kovalainen's performances putting him under the gaze of rival teams.
With a closely followed battle with Virgin Racing last year at times, the team annihilated its rivals this year round, with 12 class wins to Virgin's six, and 14 class poles to Virgin's five. This year it was just total domination by the Malaysian squad. This year it was 16 wins to Team Lotus wins to Virgins 3 and 19 poles to Virgin's zero. The statistics clearly show how much they have improved compared to Virgin who should be their closest rivals.
By the end of the season, Lotus had scored the highest of any of the new teams had finished 3 times, which was 13th place, 3 positions away from the last point, and had the three new teams been in a championship of their own, Lotus' Jarno Trulli would've won it by a colossal 280 points, with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in second.
Lotus also claimed the highest placing for a new team in the constructors' championship, claiming the vital 10th place in the standings for the second time running.
This was always likely to be decided on a tie-break of best results as for any of Lotus, Virgin or Hispania to actually get into the top 10 in a race was a long-shot.
Trulli's 13th place in Australia gave Lotus an early headstart in this quest, and it then pretty much put its position beyond doubt by taking 13th in Monaco and in Italy.
While Lotus had its rival backmarkers under control, one thing it couldn't do was get on terms with the rest of the field.
The T128 was a deliberately more creative than the T127, but it wasn’t enough to get to the tailend of the midfield, the team expected much better pace with it’s upgrades. A revamp for the Spanish Grand Prix shaved off some of the car's excess weight, but the fundamental redesign it really required to get near the points was never on the cards, with Lotus declaring early on that as it was confident it had enough in hand to see off Virgin and Hispania this year, it would focus all its efforts on its 2012 car from the summer.
There were a few occasions when Lotus had a shot at some giant-killing.
Reliability issues for the front-midfield runners helped Lotus and Kovalainen get into Q2 in both Spain and Belgium, while Kovalainen gave his absolute utmost to get through in the dry in several times, it just wasn’t to be as a midfield runner would put in a fast lap near the end to deny him.
Overall, Kovalainen emerged from 2011 with his reputation fully restored after a disappointing McLaren stint, having been the class act among the new teams.
His team-mate Jarno Trulli struggled in qualifying, but got two crucial 13th place finishes which helped Team Lotus secure 10th place in the constructors. Always a perfectionist who is only at his best when the chassis handles to his liking, Trulli admitted very early in the season that the T127 was not ideal for his style and that this was going to be a poor season for him.
Yet while he was very open about the problems with Lotus' 2011 package. Lotus had done the very best that was possible, and that while he was writing this year off, he was very optimistic about the team's future.
Plans for the future dominated much of Lotus' season.
Next year it will receive the Renault V8 and Red Bull transmission system along with the KERS system - effectively giving it a large part of the package that took Sebastian Vettel to this year's world title.
The Malaysian declared that fan support - and Lotus seems to be earning a level of crowd affection reminiscent of Jordan's 'favourite underdog' status from its glory days - had convinced him to fight on, and if there's one thing this team has proved in its first year, it's that it shouldn't be underestimated by its rivals, whatever the battle...
Highlights: Finishing 10th in the constructors championship in two consecutive years, being much closer place to its nearest rivals ahead.
Lowlights: Reliability, and the supposed ‘1 second’ upgrades under-performing.
.Team Lotus season review
Lotus was the big success story among the three new teams this year. It was the pacesetter in its group virtually all last season, wrapped up the critical 10th place in the constructors' standings, and snapped at the midfielders' heels on several occasions.
Having secured Renault engines, Red Bull transmission systems plus KERS and some handy new technical signings for this year, it looks set for a very promising future .
As part of a major technical team upgrade many Force India staff were leaving their jobs to join the team and aid with car development. The team in October last year, confirmed that it will build a dedicated wind-tunnel facility at its British base. In addition, the team and its GP2 outfit Team AirAsia will expand operations at the existing factory site to take over a further two units, giving Team Air Asia a permanent home alongside the Lotus operation.
The FIA released the entry list for the 2011 season in which Lotus Racing were listed under the "Team Lotus" name.To show that the team was pressing ahead with its plans, they rebranded their factory, changed their official website and introduced a new team logo. Chief executive Riad Asmat announced that he expected the car to be a genuine midfield runner and challenge for point-scoring positions. Jarno Trulli said that the Lotus-sponsored Renault team had given Team Lotus plenty of motivation to perform more consistently. Lotus announced that they were going to launch their new car, the Lotus T128 – online, instead of a physical launch, and was unveiled online on 31 January 2011.
In March, it was confirmed that Luiz Razia and Davide Valsecchi – drivers for Lotus' sister outfit Team AirAsia in the GP2 Series – would join the team as third driver and test driver respectively, and will take part in a number of Friday practice sessions during the season. Ricardo Teixeira also joined as a second test driver. On 22 March 2011, Karun Chandhok also joined as the team's reserve driver.
It was far from a flawless season, with reliability issues hard to shake off, and a row developing over the Lotus name which could yet see Tony Fernandes' squad rebranded over the summer, but overall, this was a triumphant second full season for whatever this alliance between Malaysian and Norfolk talent ends up being called long-term.
Although the relative pace of the T128 was an improvement on that of its predecessor, the team were unable to bridge the gap to the lower midfield over the course of the season, generally being slower than closest rivals Toro Rosso and Williams but solidly ahead of HRT and Marussia Virgin, with Kovalainen's performances putting him under the gaze of rival teams.
With a closely followed battle with Virgin Racing last year at times, the team annihilated its rivals this year round, with 12 class wins to Virgin's six, and 14 class poles to Virgin's five. This year it was just total domination by the Malaysian squad. This year it was 16 wins to Team Lotus wins to Virgins 3 and 19 poles to Virgin's zero. The statistics clearly show how much they have improved compared to Virgin who should be their closest rivals.
By the end of the season, Lotus had scored the highest of any of the new teams had finished 3 times, which was 13th place, 3 positions away from the last point, and had the three new teams been in a championship of their own, Lotus' Jarno Trulli would've won it by a colossal 280 points, with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in second.
Lotus also claimed the highest placing for a new team in the constructors' championship, claiming the vital 10th place in the standings for the second time running.
This was always likely to be decided on a tie-break of best results as for any of Lotus, Virgin or Hispania to actually get into the top 10 in a race was a long-shot.
Trulli's 13th place in Australia gave Lotus an early headstart in this quest, and it then pretty much put its position beyond doubt by taking 13th in Monaco and in Italy.
While Lotus had its rival backmarkers under control, one thing it couldn't do was get on terms with the rest of the field.
The T128 was a deliberately more creative than the T127, but it wasn’t enough to get to the tailend of the midfield, the team expected much better pace with it’s upgrades. A revamp for the Spanish Grand Prix shaved off some of the car's excess weight, but the fundamental redesign it really required to get near the points was never on the cards, with Lotus declaring early on that as it was confident it had enough in hand to see off Virgin and Hispania this year, it would focus all its efforts on its 2012 car from the summer.
There were a few occasions when Lotus had a shot at some giant-killing.
Reliability issues for the front-midfield runners helped Lotus and Kovalainen get into Q2 in both Spain and Belgium, while Kovalainen gave his absolute utmost to get through in the dry in several times, it just wasn’t to be as a midfield runner would put in a fast lap near the end to deny him.
Overall, Kovalainen emerged from 2011 with his reputation fully restored after a disappointing McLaren stint, having been the class act among the new teams.
His team-mate Jarno Trulli struggled in qualifying, but got two crucial 13th place finishes which helped Team Lotus secure 10th place in the constructors. Always a perfectionist who is only at his best when the chassis handles to his liking, Trulli admitted very early in the season that the T127 was not ideal for his style and that this was going to be a poor season for him.
Yet while he was very open about the problems with Lotus' 2011 package. Lotus had done the very best that was possible, and that while he was writing this year off, he was very optimistic about the team's future.
Plans for the future dominated much of Lotus' season.
Next year it will receive the Renault V8 and Red Bull transmission system along with the KERS system - effectively giving it a large part of the package that took Sebastian Vettel to this year's world title.
The Malaysian declared that fan support - and Lotus seems to be earning a level of crowd affection reminiscent of Jordan's 'favourite underdog' status from its glory days - had convinced him to fight on, and if there's one thing this team has proved in its first year, it's that it shouldn't be underestimated by its rivals, whatever the battle...
Highlights: Finishing 10th in the constructors championship in two consecutive years, being much closer place to its nearest rivals ahead.
Lowlights: Reliability, and the supposed ‘1 second’ upgrades under-performing.
