Today Lotus Racing revealed their challenger for the 2010 F1 season – the Lotus Cosworth T127 – at their launch event in London.
The first thing that will have come to everyone’s mind at the launch will have been the paint scheme – a hark back to the classis Lotus livery of years gone by, following the retro theme this season started by Ferrari, looking back to the F93A and Renault to the RS01.
Team Principal Tony Fernandes was optimistic his team would do well in the season ahead.
“I am extremely proud to be here today and to be able to show the world the fruits of the team's hard work over the last five months,” he said.
“Now we've achieved two major milestones; confirming our entry and unveiling our car, but now the real work starts. Next we move on to testing and the season ahead and I'm confident that the team will exceed expectations wherever we go, and will do so on a wave of support around the world that has been growing daily since we first unleashed Lotus Racing back in September '09.”
Lotus became the second of the new teams to launch their car this year – and Technical Director Mike Gascoyne knows they are facing some tough challenges ahead.
“The last few months have been some of the most challenging of my career,” he said. “It's been a challenge the whole team and I have thrived on since we first started work on the car up in Norfolk. I'm delighted that we've reached this point, and now we have a beautiful car that gives us a great base to work from for the season ahead and a fighting chance of going racing in the right way, with a winning mentality. The hard part starts now, and I know everyone in the team and I are up for whatever lies ahead.”
The T127 will make its competitive track debut at Jerez next week in the hands of its driver pairing Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen.