Team Lotus Brief History

[Mark H]

The legendary Team Lotus name has returned to Formula One™ for the 2011 season, but to trace the roots of the return of one of world sport’s most iconic names we have to go back to 2009.

On September 12th 2009 the team, then known as Lotus Racing, was officially born when the FIA granted its entry into the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship.

Headed up by Team Principal Tony Fernandes and Deputy Team Principals Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin, supported by Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and Chief Executive Riad Asmat, the team made its base in Hingham, Norfolk, near the original home of Team Lotus and set about its 2010 challenge of winning the battle of the new teams in Formula One™.

Stepping back even further, the team’s origins began before September 2009, with Tony and fellow shareholders Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin leading a consortium of Malaysian business interests who joined forces to provide initial funding for the nascent team under the parent company 1Malaysia Racing Sdn Bhd.

Tony immediately began appointing key senior management positions, including Riad Asmat as Chief Executive Officer and Keith Saunt as Chief Operating Officer, while Mike Gascoyne began work on the technical program in the UK and across Europe.

As the team moved into its new Hingham home, work began immediately on building the 2010 cars with Mike directing the technical efforts across centres of excellence in design, wind tunnel, composite manufacturing and a host of ancillary support services throughout Europe in an intensive effort to be ready for the rapidly approaching season ahead.

With the car build process under way, a similar effort was also being undertaken in creating the team itself, with new staff being taken on every day, and the fabric of the team’s identity being created from scratch.

In December 2009 one of the first major milestones was reached, with a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur unveiling the first Lotus Racing drivers - Italy’s Jarno Trulli, Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen and Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy as third driver.

The combination of race winning experience, determination and passion gave the team a good platform from which to establish the true pace of the car and have a fighting chance of exceeding expectations in the season ahead.

 

December brought the UK’s worst winter for 30 years and as staff numbers at the Hingham factory grew work continued apace on preparations for the forthcoming season.

Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz all spent time in snowy Norfolk, having their seats fitted and familiarising themselves with their new Race Engineers, pit crews and support staff.

Chassis 01 passed all its crash tests in early January and soon afterwards was back at the factory for the engineers and mechanics to start work on the car’s build process.

As the team’s hours in the factory increased, a modern F1™ car began to take shape, and by early February the months of hard work culminated in the first Cosworth engine fire up in the factory.

Two days after that momentous first engine fire up the now 130 strong staff gathered in the factory’s race bays for a first view of the car in its final build specification.

As the final pieces of bodywork were fixed in place, the Lotus Racing team saw had their first look at the car’s green and yellow livery, bringing to mind some of motor racing’s most iconic images and leaving everyone involved with the impression that not only was the car beautiful, but also would exceed the expectations of motor racing fans around the world.

The next day the team moved to a very cold and snowy Silverstone for shakedown – a day where system checks and engineering procedures worked in harmony to finally see the Lotus Cosworth T127, as it had by then been designated, break cover on track, with Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy at the wheel.

There was huge interest in this test from fans and media alike, and at the end of the 2010 season Autosport, the motorsport industry bible, reported that a spy-shot of the T127 at the shakedown was its most viewed image of the whole year.

Having successfully completed the shakedown, the team and nearly 500 guests gathered in London in February 2010 at the prestigious Royal Horticultural Halls to see Tony, Mike, Jarno, Heikki and Fairuz unveil the T127 for the first time in public.

Among the guests were some true legends of the sport, including Sir Stirling Moss and Nigel Mansell, as well as the massed ranks of the world’s media, there to see the car that would be competing around the world in the 2010 Formula One™ World Championship.

The team received a huge vote of praise at the event, in the subsequent press coverage and feedback from fans around the world, proving they had made the right choice in terms of the driver line-up, strategic goals and, most importantly to many fans, the colour scheme – a green and yellow livery that pays homage to the marque’s illustrious heritage and demonstrates that the team is fully aware of its place, standing on the shoulders of motorsport giants.

Barely taking time to breathe, Lotus Racing then moved on to the pre-season tests, the first time the cars would run in anger only five months after the team’s inception.

Straight after the tests it was destination Bahrain for the season opening race.

On March 12th, exactly six months to the day since gaining their entry to the 2010 Championship, Lotus Racing recorded another milestone – this time seeing both cars out on track in Friday practice for the first time.

The weekend ended with both cars being classified – Heikki finishing 15th and Jarno 17th after an extremely emotional weekend brought a dream conclusion.

Having both cars classified earned the team huge respect across the motorsport world, and this respect grew throughout the season as the team took charge of the battle of the new teams, a lead they comfortably held onto throughout the 19 race season.

At the last race of 2010 in Abu Dhabi Lotus Racing was confirmed in tenth place in the Championship, securing the best new team title.

Alongside this success on track the team continued to go from strength to strength off track with the total number of staff now over 220, including 30 Malaysian staff based in the UK and Malaysia working in the design office, marketing and the commercial team.

A few notable incidents took place in the latter half of the year, with Heikki and Mark Webber coming together in spectacular fashion in Valencia, Heikki earning a new nickname “FireMan” for his heroic fire-fighting exploits in Singapore and then recording the team’s best result of the season in the incident-packed Japanese Grand Prix when car 19 came home in 12th place.

That result, and a very strong end to the season from both drivers, was enough to secure that all important tenth place in the 2010 Championship, sparking off major celebrations for the team at the seasonending race in Abu Dhabi.

By that point a number of other significant changes had taken place in the team, all of which will help the Anglo-Malaysian squad take the next steps forward in their long-term challenge to reach the top.

For the 2011 season and beyond the cars are powered by Renault engines, as used by the Championship winning Red Bull Racing team in 2010, and the similarities with Red Bull extend to the new gearbox and hydraulic systems package that will be bolted onto the Renault engines powering Team Lotus in 2011, supplied by Red Bull Technology and giving the team an incredibly powerful, reliable and aerodynamically efficient new powertrain that will help it take the fight to the established teams from the start of the 2011 season.

Another demonstration of Team Lotus’ commitment to providing aspiring motorsport talent from around the world with the opportunity to join the Team Lotus dream is the establishment of a dedicated demonstration team in Malaysia.

This team, who will run showcars at events around the ASEAN region and will be launched before the Malaysian Grand Prix 2011, gives a chance for young mechanics, engineers and ancillary support staff to learn and perfect their skills with a running car, giving them an invaluable first step on the ladder to future F1™ success.

Even more exciting for the army of Lotus Racing fans was the news that for 2011 and beyond Lotus Racing officially changed its name to Team Lotus.

Having successfully concluded the purchase of the full rights of the Team Lotus brand from David Hunt, the 2011 grid sees the return of Team Lotus, one of the most famous names in motor racing history.

Fans around the world have been following the development of the Norfolk based squad since that momentous day in September 2009 when there were just four people in the factory in Hingham, and with the return of Team Lotus in 2011 they will be glued to the next exciting chapter of this incredible story.

 

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