News: F1: Meet the E22 from Lotus amongst controversy

/ January 28, 2014

lotus F1 2014

Even as the covers were coming off new cars up and down the Jerez pit-lane on Tuesday morning, a lot of talk was about one of the designs not even in Spain.

Lotus had made no secret of its intention to miss the first pre-season test in order to ensure that its new E22 would be ready for action in Bahrain next month, but that did not stop the team from issuing a ‘pre-launch’ image of the machine, which features a strikingly different approach to the new aerodynamic rules.

Where the majority of teams have opted for ugly proboscis designs at the front of their 2014 challengers, Lotus’ solution is more akin to the old-fashioned tuning fork, cleft in the middle as opposed to looking more like a certain male appendage. Perhaps realising that there may have been an alternative, or worried that the Enstone answer may be more successful, there were murmurings about its legality as rivals set up in Spain, but Lotus technical director Nick Chester insists there is nothing untoward with the E22.

“We have passed all the necessary crash tests and we are very confident that our design complies with all the FIA legal requirements,” said Nick Chester.

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