Lotus 2011 Car Launched

Duke

Duke

Duke

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http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/01/31/lotus-tl11-launch-first-pictures/

Looks great imo. Higher, wider front nose. Merc style air intake.
 
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I thought that Merc style intake was banned for this year. Maybe they've modded it enough to be acceptable.

That rear end just seems to fade away into nothingness.


They could at least have put clean tyres on it though :D
 
Are they expecting snow races this year? Those photos make that front wing looks huge!

No rear end shots I see, that must be where everyone is it putting their money and dev time so aren't showing their hand yet.
 
Todge said:
That rear end just seems to fade away into nothingness.
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Because it does.

No suspension push/pull rods, just the wishbones holding the wheels on.
2010 rear wing *and possibly front wing too*
No diffuser

Looks like a late night panic for the photo's. ;)
 
The car looks like a fast one :) just a pitty they aren't starting with KERS. I hope that when they do implement KERS at some point in the season that it doesn't effect reliability too much.

They really are my 2nd favourite team right now, even if by the end of March they don't have the Lotus name I will still like them :).
 
But I thought Lotus Renault werent interested in the name?

Lol. They are just making themselves look like idiots. Team Lotus get my support. I just hope the courts see it the same way.
 
As much as I like them too, I've still yet to see why Team Lotus are any more deserving of the name than Renault/Proton/Genii/Bahar, other than "they were here first".

Given that neither team really has any connection to the original, it's clearly just a name anyway, so I can't say I'm too fussed who actually gets it, other than that it might mess up TL's FOTA money if they lose.

Although speaking of which, surely the rules dictate that they will be referred to as Lotus and Renault respectively, anyway? Because that's how they were registered, and as Brawn found out, you're not allowed to change your name twice within two years (which TL would effectively be doing). So if TL lost, you'd have a Lotus team running under the name Renault, and a [whatever] team running under the name Lotus. Just to make it further confusing. Excellent.
 
Lotus Renault is not a Lotus Team. they are nothing more than a title sponsor.

The court case is over the use of the Team Lotus name. Group Lotus never owned it, Team Lotus did, then David Hunt, and now Tony Fernandes. So regardless of their ties to the original team, Fernandes owns it, so should be able to use it.

Group Lotus then decided to enter F1, but for reasons not fully explained, they didnt back the established Lotus team (using the name Lotus under licence from Proton), but instead decided to go for Renault and then start some childish spat over someone else having the word Lotus in their name.

As far as im concerned, Group Lotus dont have a leg to stand on. They are involved in F1 in the exact same way as AT&T, Vodafone, Marlboro, Petronas, and Marussia. Nothing more than a company who has paid the F1 team to have their name in there title. Lada have even paid to have their name on the side of the Renault. Its just advertising.

Team Lotus are a group of people who build and race F1 cars, and who own the name Team Lotus. They should be able to use it.

If Group Lotus do win, it will just mean Fernandes wont be able to use it in F1, but he will still own it. They wouldn't be able to call the Renault team Team Lotus unless they bought it off Fernandes, and I highly doubt he will sell it.

So either Team Lotus will be callled Team Lotus, or nobody will. Lotus Renault will always remain a team paid by Group Lotus just to put stickers on their cars.
 
Skeeter said:
Lotus Renault is not a Lotus Team. they are nothing more than a title sponsor.
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How is that any different to Team Lotus?

You do know that the only reason they ran under the Lotus name last year was due to Proton granting them the rights to use it, don't you? The TL name itself was only acquired by the end of the year, after long negotiations between Fernandes and Hunt. Which only happened because Fernandes realised he was going to lose his original rights to the name. We're not talking about some plucky upstarts getting kicked down by The Man, because The Man was the reason those plucky upstarts got the name in the first place.

If you look at it from Proton's point of view, I really don't think it seems that bad. They were approached by a guy who said "I want to get a Lotus team into F1" and thought "Hey, sure, that sounds cool, if you can raise some money, here's the name, go give it a try". After a season of watching their name do nothing but sit at the back of the grid, they realise there's a possiblity of buying in to an established, mid-to-front running team instead, and getting their name right back into the mix much easier. Which is the same way the likes of Mercedes got into F1 last year. Buy into an existing team. Been done for years.

As I've said already, I really like Team Lotus, and definitely don't want to see them go under. They're very likable, they had the best pace of the new cars last year, and I hope they mix it up this season. They're definitely my underdog favourite. However, none of that is to do with whatever name they choose to use.

Lets face it, neither of these teams is actually Lotus, in terms of being related to the original by more than name. So I don't see why everybody has to hate one of them, and love the other. It's utterly arbitrary.
 
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