Lotus Renault GP have put up the latest issue of their race magazine, focusing on the 15th round of the season at the classic Suzuka circuit.
Inside you’ll find interviews with Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov, Eric Boulier, James Allison, the circuit setup guide, plus, of course, the LRGP cartoon….
You can find it over on the LRGP site.
Not a great weekend for the Lotus Jetalliance guys at the Road Atlanta ‘Petit Le Mans’ 10 hour race.
No sense of achievement for Lotus Jetalliance in the penultimate race of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup: Following huge technical problems and several racing incidents, neither of the two Lotus Evora made it into the final classification of the ten-hour long “Petit Le Mans” at Road Atlanta, since neither the triumvirate of James Rossiter/Johnny Mowlem/David Heinemaier-Hansson (GBR/GBR/DEN) nor their sister car of Martin Rich/Oskar Slingerland/Kaspar Jensen (GBR/NED/DEN) managed to complete the required 70 percent of the total running time.
Since both cars suffered sincere damage, the team’s appearance in the final event in China on November 13th has now been called into question as well . . .
Source: Lotus Jetalliance – Bad luck at the Petit
Discussion: Forum Thread
Lotus Renault GP have a new piece up today, talking with Technical Director James Allison on the issues with the R31 car, how these will be remedied in next years R32, and the coming race at Suzuka.
Will LRGP be able to get rid of these problems with the R32?
JA: Of course. Each of these problems we can engineer out of the R32. However, at this stage of the season it is much harder to address these underlying problems for the R31.
Autosolos are a great first, low cost and low risk, step in to motorsport, and the Oxford Motor Club has been kind enough to extend us an invitation to their next event, being held at Silverstone on October 23rd.
Autosolos are similar to the circuits in the popular SELOC Activity Days, with drivers competing to set the fastest time around a series of coned circuit.
Competitor take turns to prepare, drive and marshal, helping to keep the costs low and ensuring they’re rarely left twiddling their thumbs and waiting for something to do. Continue reading
Lotus Renault GP struggled last time out in Singapore, but are looking forward to Japan. It’s a favourite of Bruno Senna, and the scene of some of his famous uncles greatest highs and lows.
The Japanese Grand Prix – word has it Suzuka’s one of your favourite circuits…
BS: You’re right, it’s one of my favourites! The blend of high speed and mid speed corners makes it a very stimulating track. It’s one of the classics that has changed very little since the start. I’m really looking forward to driving there, and I’m confident that I can put my name back on the points board for the team.
Source: LRGP – Bruno Senna: “Suzuka is one of the classics that has changed very little since the start ”
News from Lotus on the ‘Freddie’ Evora auctioned off for Charity and bought by Chris Evans.
Broadcaster and car enthusiast Chris Evans visited Lotus yesterday to agree the final spec of the Evora S he bought at auction to raise money for Freddie Mercury’s charity Mercury Phoenix Trust.
At a glamorous, star-studded event at the Savoy last month, the great and beautiful gathered to mark the late Freddie Mercury’s 65th Birthday and boy, was it a party! A guilt-free party at that, for at the heart of the celebrations was a very deserving cause, the Mercury Phoenix Trust who work relentlessly to improve education and awareness of HIV and AIDS in the developing world.
During the evening a bespoke ‘Freddie inspired’ Evora S was sold at auction to self–confessed “car geek” Chris Evans. Chris’ well documented purchase was followed by a visit to Lotus Headquarters to agree the final design and specification of the new addition to his established and considerable car collection. Continue reading
Lotus Renault GP Technical Director, James Allison, takes a look in to why the R31 failed to perform in Singapore.
Is this situation down to the R31’s specific exhaust configuration?
JA: We know from our experiments with rear blowing exhausts earlier in the year that they do offer a lot more rear downforce – especially at high rear ride heights. We know that slow speed tracks allow the rear to be held up high in all the corners and we know that rear downforce is a prized asset for coping with the traction demand at these tracks. We also know that the forward exhaust, by contrast, performs more strongly once the rear ride height starts to compress – something that cannot be avoided in medium and high speed corners. It is probably reasonable to conclude that this is the basic mechanism behind the way that we shed so much competitiveness at slow speed tracks.
Source: LRGP – Singapore Debrief with James Allison
Discussion: Forum Thread
The penultimate race of the ILMC (Intercontinental Le Mans Cup) is being held this weekend at Road Atlanta, and Lotus Jetalliance will be there racing with their pair of Evora GTEs, but without former F1 driver Karl Wendlinger, who is unable to attend due to other commitments.
Both team owner Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer and the former Formula 1 driver would have prefered to join once more however Wendlinger’s TV commitments prevented him for doing so. Wendlinger was once again on assignment as a co-commentator for Austrian television at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Singapore and would have had to be in the United States as early as Monday.
Karl Wendlinger: “Sadly the logistics make it impossible, especially as the exertions of travel would have been very tiring. It’s too bad, maybe we can make it work again another time.”
Source: Lotus Jetalliance – Heading Atlanta
Discussion: Forum Thread
The F1 might not have been great for Lotus Renault, but Lotus Sport UK fared somewhat better in the British GT Championship at Donnington, with the Evora taking a clean sweep of pole position and victory in the GT4 class in tricky conditions.
Touring Car regulars Phil Glew and James Nash lapped Donington Park 100 times during the three hour endurance race, which started in wet and tricky conditions. No.48 incurred a stop-go penalty late in the day after speeding at the exit of the pitlane, but the car was already a lap ahead of the competition. Other than a faulty pitlane limiter, the car ran reliably. It was the perfect GT debut for 25-year-old Nash, who is currently fifth in the BTCC standings. They finished a lap ahead of the second-placed No.42 Ginetta of Josh Wakefield and Jake Rattenbury, and even took the fight to a number of the faster GT3 cars which failed to match the Evora GT4’s grip in the wet.
Source: Lotus Cars
Discussion: Forum Thread
What did Lotus Ambassador Jean Alesi think of Lotus Renault GP’s performance in the Singapore Grand Prix? Well you can find out in the interview on the Lotus Cars website.
Lotus Renault GP finished 15th and 17th, which must come as a disappointment after recent points finishes. Why did the team struggle in Singapore?
Street circuits have been the R31’s Achilles’ heel throughout the season and Singapore was no different, but the reality of the car’s lackluster performance was very hard to swallow. The pace just wasn’t there and the tyre degradation was pretty shocking.
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