489 replies to this topic

[Welsh Magpie]

Billy Castell, on Feb 9 2011, 04:07 PM, said:

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 8 2011, 10:41 PM, said:

The old black & gold Lotus livery looks great on the Renault.

Stupid question, but is that a Lotus, with a Renault engine, or the Renault car?

And is KERS back this season or next?

KERS is back this season also adjustable rear wings.

the car is from Group Lotus with renault engines and some sort of deal with renault they are having a dispute with Team Lotus over naming rights.
Team lotus owner tony fernandes bought the name after group lotus left his deal with them at the end of last season.
i hope Team lLotus win the right to use the name as it is the original name of the Lotus team.

if that dont make any sense im really crap with words

[Toonraider]

Welsh Magpie, on Feb 9 2011, 03:38 PM, said:

anyone else seen force indias car instead of the roll hoop they have gone for a blade kind of thing.
im glad a couple of teams are trying radical things this season.
is there anywhere on the web we can watch the testing? must be screened somewhere.

McLaren did that last year.

I dont think you can view testing anywhere, though when our friend was a test team member with Williams and before that, Arrows... he used to ring us up from the pit wall    Loud!  We had a great day out at a test day at Silverstone once,  with pit passes and passes into the garages. I never realised just how loud an F1 car was untill I stood next to it being revved up   And that was with ear plugs in  

[Toonraider]

Welsh Magpie, on Feb 9 2011, 05:44 PM, said:

Billy Castell, on Feb 9 2011, 04:07 PM, said:

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 8 2011, 10:41 PM, said:

The old black & gold Lotus livery looks great on the Renault.

Stupid question, but is that a Lotus, with a Renault engine, or the Renault car?

And is KERS back this season or next?

KERS is back this season also adjustable rear wings.

the car is from Group Lotus with renault engines and some sort of deal with renault they are having a dispute with Team Lotus over naming rights.
Team lotus owner tony fernandes bought the name after group lotus left his deal with them at the end of last season.
i hope Team lLotus win the right to use the name as it is the original name of the Lotus team.

if that dont make any sense im really crap with words

Basically its just a Renault.

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 01:30 PM, said:

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 9 2011, 01:21 PM, said:

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 12:58 PM, said:

Rumour has it that Ferrari may well be behind it having had their knuckles wrapped for the Marlboro barcode incident last season.

They should watch themselves. That Scuderia Ferrari logo on the engine cover has a more than passing resemblance to half a Marlboro logo.

That hadn't gone without my notice too... Probably think they can get away with it if LRGP can.

It's blatant isn't it? How long has tobacco advertising been banned, and yet the Philip Morris group are still one of their biggest backers.

[Rob W]

i think a few grand prix countries have already warned them they'll have to change the colours when they drive there

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Toonraider, on Feb 9 2011, 05:46 PM, said:

Basically its just a Renault.

This.

It's last years Renault team re-branded.

It's confusing because there will be two teams running under a 'Lotus' name this season, Team Lotus (the Green, white & yellow one from last season) and Lotus Racing (last years Renault team in Black & gold). Craig or Bev might be able to correct me, but I think Team Lotus bought the naming rights from the Chapman family (heirs of Colin Chapman, the founder) & their business partners, whilst Renault bought the name from Proton who now own Lotus Cars (the road cars division).

[Toonraider]

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 9 2011, 06:20 PM, said:

Toonraider, on Feb 9 2011, 05:46 PM, said:

Basically its just a Renault.

This.

It's last years Renault team re-branded.

It's confusing because there will be two teams running under a 'Lotus' name this season, Team Lotus (the Green, white & yellow one from last season) and Lotus Racing (last years Renault team in Black & gold). Craig or Bev might be able to correct me, but I think Team Lotus bought the naming rights from the Chapman family (heirs of Colin Chapman, the founder) & their business partners, whilst Renault bought the name from Proton who now own Lotus Cars (the road cars division).

Yep spot on, well thats as I understand it. Of course The 'Chapman Lotus' is racing Lotus whereas the Proton Lotus name is the road car. So to me Team Lotus have more right to the name.

[Craig]

Almost right Dr K.

Fernandez (boss of last year's Lotus Racing, now Team Lotus) bought the naming rights from David Hunt (brother of James) who acquired the name when the old Team Lotus went bust. I think it has something to do with the old Pacific GP team who merged with Team Lotus at the end of 1994 and raced with the Lotus badge on the car until they themselves went bust at the end of 1995.

Proton own Group Lotus (i.e. Lotus road cars) which they bought when the company splintered in the mid 90s. They don't own, nor never have, the Team Lotus name however they signed a contract with Fernandez so his team could use the Lotus name (but importantly not the badge) on their cars in 2010. Proton have since got a new boss who has a stonk-on for motor racing and effectively said Lotus Racing is shit, we can associate ourselves with a much better team hence their association with Renault.  At the same time as this happened, Fernandez bought the rights to the Team Lotus name which threw an iron in the works for their masterplan and therefore fabricated this whole bollocks that Lotus Racing had broken their contract in some way or another.

I hope to god Team Lotus prevails. They're a breath of fresh air to the sport and when you consider they clearly beat the other two 'new' teams last season despite having 3 months less to prepare, they're fully deserving of it. Bearing all this in mind and despite me loving the JPS colour scheme, I'd piss myself if they were forced to change it.

Just to add confusion to the matter, the engine in the back of the Team Lotus this season will be..... a Renault!

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 08:58 PM, said:

Just to add confusion to the matter, the engine in the back of the Team Lotus this season will be..... a Renault!

  They should be known as Renault-Lotus and Lotus-Renault then, surely no-one could find that confusing  

[Craig]

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 9 2011, 09:40 PM, said:

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 08:58 PM, said:

Just to add confusion to the matter, the engine in the back of the Team Lotus this season will be..... a Renault!

  They should be known as Renault-Lotus and Lotus-Renault then, surely no-one could find that confusing  

As someone on Twitter wrote:

"We don't refer to Marlboro McLaren or Vodafone Mercedes so it'll simply be Renault".

[spongebob toonpants]

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 09:45 PM, said:

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 9 2011, 09:40 PM, said:

Craig, on Feb 9 2011, 08:58 PM, said:

Just to add confusion to the matter, the engine in the back of the Team Lotus this season will be..... a Renault!

  They should be known as Renault-Lotus and Lotus-Renault then, surely no-one could find that confusing  

As someone on Twitter wrote:

"We don't refer to Marlboro McLaren or Vodafone Mercedes so it'll simply be Renault".

lol at me and the power of advertising -I do pretty much still think of McLaren as Marlboro McLaren.

So the one that looks like the old JPS Lotus isn't a JPS Lotus, but is a Renault, but is called a Lotus, and is better car than the heir to Lotus name which doesnt look like a JPS Lotus, but is Lotus green. Amarite?

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Welsh Magpie, on Feb 9 2011, 03:38 PM, said:

is there anywhere on the web we can watch the testing? must be screened somewhere.

Dunno. Autosport have got a live text commentary page going, but its canny boring and you'd have to very dedicated (or sad) to sit and watch it for any length of time:
http://live.autospor...tary.php/id/306

[Rob W]

good preparation for the real thing in other words

[Meenzer]

Certainly good preparation for a season's worth of your contributions to this thread.

[Welsh Magpie]

Dr Kenneth Noisewater, on Feb 10 2011, 12:19 PM, said:

Welsh Magpie, on Feb 9 2011, 03:38 PM, said:

is there anywhere on the web we can watch the testing? must be screened somewhere.

Dunno. Autosport have got a live text commentary page going, but its canny boring and you'd have to very dedicated (or sad) to sit and watch it for any length of time:
http://live.autospor...tary.php/id/306

great im sad and boring right up my street
it isnt the most exciting of things but good to go back to every ten minutes see whats been happening if anything.
did just notice ferrari have had to rename the car f-150th because ford make the f-150

[Craig]

Do us all a favour and step out of the thread Rob, there's a good old chap

Back to business, I had a feeling that Renault may have stolen McLaren's thunder with the forward facing exhausts. Seems my hunch may well have been right.

Makes their launch even more clever seeing as the back of the car was exposed but showed a traditional exhaust system - interesting ploy.

Quote

McLaren was testing a Renault-like forward-exiting exhaust concept on its newly launched MP4-26 car at Jerez on Thursday.

The car debuted by Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish circuit therefore differed fundamentally from the version launched in Berlin recently, according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

There had been speculation that the 2011 McLaren was set to race with an unique exhaust layout this season, after Robert Kubica drove the similarly innovative Renault R31 to the fastest time in Valencia last week before injuring himself in a rally crash.

Auto Motor und Sport's Jerez correspondent said McLaren's rear-exiting conventional exhaust layout had mysteriously vanished when Hamilton exited the pits at Jerez on Thursday morning.

Instead, the exhausts are now exiting at the front of the sidepods, with the innovation only spotted by reporters when mechanics had to pause on one occasion whilst pushing Hamilton back into the garage after a run on Thursday.

"As with the Renault the detail is very difficult to photograph," confirmed the German report.

http://www.motorspor...p...99641&FS=F1

[Billy Castell]

In laymen's terms does anyone understand the reasoning for forward facing exhausts?

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Billy Castell, on Feb 10 2011, 05:20 PM, said:

In laymen's terms does anyone understand the reasoning for forward facing exhausts?

The exhaust gas is fed under the floor of the car at the base of the side pods. It increases the speed of the air running underneath the car and, in theory, downforce.

However, it must be a packaging nightmare, the side structure of the car will be subjected to intensely hot gases (will this effect the crash resistance for example) and the balance of the car must be twitchy depending on whether the throttle is on or off.

If it shows a definite advantage the other teams are going to struggle because this isn't something you can 'bolt on', it's a fundamental design feature.

[Billy Castell]

It sounds like it is something that can be a brilliant success, or a complete fuck up.

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

Gold star to the first person who can tell me where they've seen something similar to the Mclaren sidepods before...