It’s the second in Lotus’ two home Grands Prix of the season, and they will be hoping to be closer to competition with the midfield runners with yet more updates for the British round at the team’s ‘spiritual home’, Silverstone.
Technical director Mike Gascoyne explained the updates. “We have a number of lightweight parts across the car that, among other benefits, will help us use the ballast more effectively, giving our drivers a better chance to optimise balance and setup,” the Brit said. “We also have the last major aero modifications of the season, including a new floor and various bodywork updates, and then the design team’s attention turns to next year’s car,” he added.
Heikki Kovalainen is looking forward to the new part of the circuit. The Finn said: “The first sector of the circuit is the best sector on the whole F1 calendar – lots of fast bits that require maximum commitment. I haven’t driven the new part yet but I’ve heard it’s going to be great and we have some more updates coming that I hope will keep moving us closer to those ahead and further away from the other new teams.”
Jarno Trulli said that this weekend’s race will be ‘important’, in front of the home crowd.”Silverstone will definitely be another important weekend for us, the first time a Lotus has raced in F1 in the UK for a long time, and our second home race. I think we’ll have a lot of support there, and I hope we’ll do well – the British fans are very knowledgeable and there’s always a lot of them, so it’ll be a great show, whatever happens,” the Italian said. “There’s a new layout, and it’ll be very interesting to see how quick that’s going to be – we’ll be looking at how it affects the tyres and what strategies and setups will be best for us, so all in all I’m looking forward to getting over there,” he added.
Lotus’ test driver Fairuz Fauzy will drive the T127 around the Northamptonshire circuit during Friday Practice 1. Understandably, Fauzy is looking forward to the opportunity: “I’m very excited about getting out on track in front of my friends, family and fans, and it’ll be a real honour to not only be one of the first F1 cars to try out the new layout, but also to be able to bring the Lotus marque back to its spiritual home,” the Malaysian said.
He has driven in Formula 1 practice once thus far at the Malaysian Grand Prix, but he will have more chances to come, as he will also be behind the wheel of a T127 in practice at Hungary, Singapore and Abu Dhabi later this year.
