The historic Lotus name is back in F1 for the first time since 1994, but can they live up to the expectation?

Lotus T127

Given they only had 5 months to construct a car, it is no surprise that the Lotus T127 is pretty basic, with it’s ‘boxy’ appearance, meaning less aerodynamic efficiency and downforce. We can expect big developments on the Lotus throughout the season, given that it is a well-funded team, and they have a mid-season updates specialist in their designer Mike Gascoyne.

Jarno Trulli has said that the team will be around 4 seconds off the pace in Bahrain, and while the car has consistently been towards the bottom end of the timesheets in testing, it seems fairly reliable.

Drivers

They may not be the fastest men on the grid, but in Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus have two drivers with plenty of F1 experience, to help keep the team on track.

Jarno Trulli has put in some amazing qualifying performances in his time, and with the low fuel qualifying in 2010, he may well enjoy some more! However, he has only turned those good grid positions into good finishing positions on occasions.

Heikki Kovalainen was the hot young prospect when he was at Renault in his debut F1 season in 2007, finishing every race bar one, scoring consistent points and even a 2nd place! McLaren saw his potential and snapped him up for 2008 and 2009, yet he seems to have left the Woking based team with his reputation suitably weakened – sharing a garage with a world champion in Lewis Hamilton did him no favours! However, in 2010, Kovalainen will be under less pressure to perform and may well thrive under the task.

I don’t envisage Lotus being anywhere near the front on their debut season. However the car seems consistent, and they have two experienced, consistent and reasonably quick drivers to match, and I believe the occasional point or two, and the crown for the best newcomers will not be beyond their reach.