Lotus E20 Renault

[ringo]

Off paint scheme topic, but this car will be a challenger.
The R31 had pretty good aspects which were shadowed by the exhaust system, but were carried over to this car.

[raymondu999]

Yeah there are a few elliptical features I can see

[Blackout]

This is from an interview with James Allison for the Lotus website.

WITH SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT STILL ON GOING AT THIS EARLY STAGE OF THE SEASON, HOW DIFFERENT WILL THE E20 THAT SITS ON THE GRID IN MELBOURNE BE TO THE CAR WE’VE ALREADY SEEN AT JEREZ?

The car we take to Melbourne will be significantly different to the one we ran in Jerez. There’s a lot of work still to do before the season opener, and so many elements will change; the front wing, rear wing, side pods, pod vanes, engine cover, barge board, floor, some suspension elements, and some small brake duct features to name but a few! As always, it’s going to be a very busy few weeks.

+ front vortex generators* and tea tray, said Allison earlier
* wich ones the dolphin fins under the nose or the vanes below the front brake ducts, or all of them

[ringo]

Yeah there are a few elliptical features I can see

damn right!

But on a more detailed note, this team was always good at suspension. Slow speed turs are even more critical this year without the blown diffusers. This team went through hell trying to make the FEE work last year in slow speeds. All that effort and experimenting will be invested in this years suspension i believe.

[munudeges]

Mechanically they've always been pretty sound so without much of a blown effect in slow corners that will be pretty important.

[Tozza Mazza]

Strangely enough Mr Grosjean has said the car 'feels' best in high speed corners. I'm hoping this teams pre-season promise becomes a reality. 2011 was too same-y.

[Pierce89]

Strangely enough Mr Grosjean has said the car 'feels' best in high speed corners. I'm hoping this teams pre-season promise becomes a reality. 2011 was too same-y.

Unfortunately the F1 circuit no longer contains many high speed corners, and even fewer are important to lap time.

[raymondu999]

Doesn't matter much that Jerez doesn't have many does it though? If he feels it's good in fast corners; most other circuits have fast corners anyways.

[willga]

It's such a step down from gold. It doesn't really remind me of the old lotus colour scheme anymore.

In relation to the cream paintwork

I have been told by a professional model maker (at a company that makes models for manufactures), the original Lotus didn't have gold paintwork, but something they called 'sign writers gold' which is a beige/cream colour. However I do think this is on the cream side, or maybe because the lines are a lot thicker?

The 'gold' on the 70's cars was a cream colour - for better contrast.
I've Gunnar Nilsson's old sidepod hanging on my wall.

[Gridlock]

I've Gunnar Nilsson's old sidepod hanging on my wall.

Feel free to measure the width of the pinstripe and send that over to Genii

[madly]

HiRes photos (right click & view):

Diffuser:

[Owen.C93]

That diffuser looks a bit weird, the sides don't fully extend and curve much sooner effectively extending the exit zone of the diffuser and working tighter with the rear tyres.

[dren]

The outer most turning vanes look like they are turning the diffuser flow 90 degrees just rear of the tires. It's expanding the flow vertically and horizontally. I figured the rear tires would mess up with the flow and cause a lot of bad interaction in this area.

[bill shoe]

Regarding the purpose of the odd side-facing diffuser exits--

Don't think interaction with the rear tires, instead think interaction with the (closer) "brake duct" cascade wings just inside the tires.

My guess is that the outer corners of the diffuser are a bit forward and sideways-facing so that the diffuser air exits more directly underneath/behind the "brake duct" winglets on the rear corners. By connecting the outer edges of the diffuser to the "brake duct" wing cascades you should be able to get some airflow synergy. The brake duct cascades help pull more air through the diffuser. Neat. There's something deliciously creative about the way the side-exit diffuser geometry accomplished this.

This overall system may also be an effective way of passively clawing back some of the blown-exhaust sealing at the diffuser edge that was done last year. Notice the Renault seems good in fast corners even though they do not resort to exhaust outlet trickery a la McLaren, Sauber, etc.

[madly]

I agree with Bill Shoe. On the first photo there is visible fow-vis on the left inside wheel cover, and at the right side there are visible rear wheel winglets. Definitively there is some creative way in diffuser exit treatment.