final drive - Mundo Motorizado

Team boss Boullier Tech chief Allison
“We had a pretty good relationship
last year and he’s fast and motivated,”
said Raikkonen. “On track, we were
pretty close to each other at times but
we didn’t have any issues. It’s good
when you have a team-mate who’s
fast and works hard. I think we
should be fine in 2013.”
THE MAGIC BULLET?
Lotus will persevere with its passive
DRS device in 2013. The team tried it
during the second half of last season
but never raced it. Despite that,
Allison is confident that it will be a
success this year. To call it a magic
bullet would be disingenuous,
especially as Lotus is not on its own
in looking seriously at the concept,
but in a season during which tiny
performance gains could make a big
difference in position, if it does work
as hoped it will be a valuable weapon.
“We will try to make a success of
the double DRS and have another
bash at making that work for us,” said
Allison. “There’s a reasonable amount
of work to be done but I think it can
be done during pre-season to get the
fundamentals sorted and then we can
go from there. The effort that we are
prepared to put into it has to be
justified by the gain we can get out of
it. We’ve got a very stable regulatory
environment so gains are more
hard-won now. If we can get on top of
this system, it will be most welcome.”
The passive DRS concept is
designed to stall the rear wing on the
straights by activating an aero ‘switch’
when a certain speed is hit. This
diverts the airflow and stalls the rear
12 autosport.com January 31 2013
wing, cutting drag. The problem is
ensuring that the switch activates
and de-activates at the same speed,
something that has proved tricky
to achieve. This means that it
might only be deployable at certain
favourable circuits, although Allison
is hopeful it can be universal.
“It all depends on how good we are
engineering it,” he said. “It’s possible
to imagine it being useful at every
circuit. If we do a less good job than
that, then it will only be at certain
circuits, like Spa, where even a
relatively crudely placed switch can
bludgeon its way to a decent gain.”
EXHAUST GAINS
Key to Lotus’s late-2012 form was the
introduction of the Coanda exhaust.
This significantly improved rear-end
traction and helped Raikkonen to that
breakthrough win in Abu Dhabi. After
making the exhaust switch late, Lotus
was not getting the most out of the
concept and if the version on the E21
is as good as hoped, it’s another area
where the team can make a gain.
“Our first version of it was not a
bad effort and made the car go
quicker,” said Allison. “It certainly
was what we were capable of given
the race that we got the system out
for [Korea]. But relative to the power
loss that we were experiencing back
then [with the Coanda set-up], the
2013 car will be at half that level.”
That should add up to an extra
6-8bhp thanks to mitigating the
loss inherent in the more elaborate
exhaust system. Combine that with
the extra downforce, and it’s clear
that the gains are there to be had.
WHY 2013 IS KEY
Lotus hasn’t been shy about
admitting to its aspirations of
becoming a title-winning force in
the long-term and the rules reset in
2014 is an obvious point at which it
can realise that ambition. But 2013
will play a significant role in making
that step forward.
“It’s our ambition to be considered
a top team, which should result in
our capability to fight for a top-three
position every year,” said Boullier. “If
you build success one year, you can
carry it into the second year. This will
make this outfit attractive enough for
sponsors that we want to be with us.
If you can attract the best people, you
can develop the best cars and in 2014
it’s very important to have a strong
and stable technical department.”
This is why Lotus cannot afford to
rest on its laurels in 2013 and focus
on next year, an approach that is
open to some of its rivals. For all the
question marks over future financing,
the team is sure it has everything in
place, including the budget, to achieve
its aims, especially with investment
in facilities – next up a new gearbox
dyno – continuing apace.
When asked if he is confident he
has the resources to lead his team
into the top three, Allison replied:
“The budgets for this year are greater
than last year, so as long as we deliver
a good car, there’s no reason why not.”
On paper, everything appears to
be going in the right direction. The
key question now is whether the
E21 builds on the successes of its
predecessor. If it does, expect more
than just a single victory.
pics: lotus f1