Lotus reveal E20 (Pictures)

Jack Sargeant On February - 5 - 2012

Lotus E20, 2012 - Photo © Lotus F1 Team

Lotus have revealed their 2012 challenger, the E20 – named after Enstone, where the team is based. The car was unveiled by its new drivers for this season, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, as well as reserve driver Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Technical Director James Allison, on the differences between the E20 and last year’s R31 (when the team was under the guise of Renault) said: “Depending on where you look, some parts of the new car are a ground-up redesign and in other areas we have further optimised the best bits of the design philosophy we’ve adopted for several seasons.

“As far as the exhausts are concerned, our forward exhausts would now be illegal under the new rules and didn’t live up to our expectations in any case. So that part of the car we say goodbye to and welcome in a complete re-design. The front and rear suspension layouts are substantially revised to try and give us better aerodynamic opportunities.

“The front wing is a continuation of the concepts we have worked on since the 2009 rules were published. The rear wing system, we’ve continued to try to work on having a satisfactory level of rear downforce stability, whilst having a maximum DRS switching potential.”

Team Principal Eric Bouiller said that 2012 was “very welcome after a poor 2011″, adding “for 2012 we expect to be in a position to fight for fourth place for the championship.”

More pictures being uploaded!