Lotus E20 Renault

[govind112]

Lotus Renaults next car... will it be designed on the platform of the awful R31 or will they revert back to the R30/R29.

Also with the ban of off throttle gases they will almost certainly abolish the FFE and revert to the classic design.

[wesley123]

of course they base it on the R31. The R30 was nothing better, the only difference was that the R30 was constant, the R31 felt back really far, but these are manufacturing and other errors, not an fundamentally bad car. Imo we can expect something good for next year with the R32, let's say they sorted out their problems, they are getting a new simulator so apart from on the budget side everything is looking well.

[Fil]

I don't hold too much promise for Renault in 2012.

Continuity & stability is the key driver for success, and Renault is still nowhere near settling under their new team ownership.

- It's been a revolving door of staff in 2011.
- Team discontent with top level management still keeps popping up.
- Driver lineup is far from being settled.
- Questions of the financial health of the team continue.
- Possibility of a hostile takeover due to debt hasn't been discounted.
- New simulator's tender for construction hasn't been finalised, so won't be operational until late 2012, meaning it'll only be an asset for early 2013 upgrades at best.


And should they get Kubica back for 2012, his involvement in the development of the R32 will be compromised by a lack of input in the R31, leaving their leading driver with a car not wholly to his tastes.


Unless one of the top 4 teams get it horribly wrong, (and we haven't even contemplated one of Sauber/Williams/FI/STR getting their car super right), I really can't see what is pointing to 2012 being an improvement for Renault over 2011.

[Donuts]

I don't hold too much promise for Renault in 2012.

Continuity & stability is the key driver for success, and Renault is still nowhere near settling under their new team ownership.

- It's been a revolving door of staff in 2011.
- Team discontent with top level management still keeps popping up.
- Driver lineup is far from being settled.
- Questions of the financial health of the team continue.
- Possibility of a hostile takeover due to debt hasn't been discounted.
- New simulator's tender for construction hasn't been finalised, so won't be operational until late 2012, meaning it'll only be an asset for early 2013 upgrades at best.


And should they get Kubica back for 2012, his involvement in the development of the R32 will be compromised by a lack of input in the R31, leaving their leading driver with a car not wholly to his tastes.


Unless one of the top 4 teams get it horribly wrong, (and we haven't even contemplated one of Sauber/Williams/FI/STR getting their car super right), I really can't see what is pointing to 2012 being an improvement for Renault over 2011.

Let's look at the other side of things(I'm not in any way defending the team).

I think you need to read this:

http://www.lotusrenaultgp.com/6905-Gera ... ml?lang=en

- It's been a revolving door of staff in 2011? Read article(480->520)
- Team discontent with top level management still keeps popping up? Source?
- Driver lineup is far from being settled.
- Questions of the financial health of the team continue. Read article
- Possibility of a hostile takeover due to debt hasn't been discounted. Source?

- New simulator's tender for construction hasn't been finalised, so won't be operational until late 2012, meaning it'll only be an asset for early 2013 upgrades at best. Has Robert Kubica ever used a simulator? Might be a good training ground for rookies and maybe help with some pre set-up of the car

If Robert Kubica is back in good shape with(I hope) Bruno Senna as team mate and Genii keep investing in the team, it might as well turn out really well.

Only "worry" is that they should get some more experience running the normal exhaust layout. But I can bet that they've been working on it for some while now. I wonder if they will introduce it this year just for that reason...

Who knows? The interview with Gerald Lopez really opens ones eyes to the ridiculous gossip of the F1 community.

[raymondu999]

Also with the ban of off throttle gases they will almost certainly abolish the FFE and revert to the classic design.

It was announced several months ago that the exhausts were mandated to a periscope position.

Also let's rename this the Lotus Renault R32

[mx_tifoso]

I wonder if Volkswagen are going to threaten Renault with legal action if they name the car 'R32'.

[marcush.]

Sure the team has not found any speed since the summer break and left Singapore in a sorry state with neither Petrov nor Senna in reach of points.

So if anything one could say that Heidfelds departure cost them deerly in overall competitiveness as both current drivers seem to be unable to keep the development in the right direction?

Very alarming is the upturn of Force India who have scored over 7 points per race after the summer break compared to measley 1,3points for Renault per race.At this rate they will just fall behind FI with the last race....a huge price to pay
and possibly not really what Boullier and lopez had in mind ..

[raymondu999]

Interestingly, Adam Cooper has just tweeted:

#F1 LRGP must be breaking the RRA, they seem to have 100s of mechanics unless it's the same ones going round and round the airport

[marekk]

Sure the team has not found any speed since the summer break and left Singapore in a sorry state with neither Petrov nor Senna in reach of points.

So if anything one could say that Heidfelds departure cost them deerly in overall competitiveness as both current drivers seem to be unable to keep the development in the right direction?

Very alarming is the upturn of Force India who have scored over 7 points per race after the summer break compared to measley 1,3points for Renault per race.At this rate they will just fall behind FI with the last race....a huge price to pay
and possibly not really what Boullier and lopez had in mind ..

Singapore was a disaster, no doubt, but actually, considering their driver line-up (it's now more or less clear Petrov is still not that quick as we believed, both drivers worlds apart from merc line-up), R31 performed quite good in Spa and even more so at Monza (both qually and fastest lap times at merc niveau).

[janjua]

i think if Lotus-Renault can sort out little problems, improve pit stops and race strategy they have got an top three chance for next year, the R32 could be a better car overall compared to the R31, the engines are great you can see the success Red Bull have had with these engines, what Lotus-Renault need to do is keep pushing and keep the hard work up and improve cars handling, top speed, some of the aerodynamics and other key areas that need improvement. i think there new simulator will help in pushing for the podiums next year. at the start of 2011 the R31 was a very good car that can be seen with the early podiums, and good positions but the things that have hit Lotus-Renault's chances are the R31 being disastrous at low speed, city type tracks like Monaco,Singapore,Yas Marina and bad race strategy (recant races), that has led to an sudden the down hill drop, but i think they can recover especially with the big driver line up they have Vitaly Petrov good driver that pushes hard, Bruno Senna driver that's still learning but has very good driving ability, Romain Grosjean also a driver that pushes the car to the full and then Robert Kubica if he returns he could get the team anywhere.

[adrianjordan]

I wonder whether it will be the "R32" or whether Lotus (as they will be called) will decide to start their own naming system...

[N12ck]

I wonder whether it will be the "R32" or whether Lotus (as they will be called) will decide to start their own naming system...

Maybe it should be called the Lotus - Renault R32 for the time being

[raymondu999]

It will be lotus Renault though. In the way it's Red Bull Racing-Renault. The engine supplier has to be in the full name

[N12ck]

It will be lotus Renault though. In the way it's Red Bull Racing-Renault. The engine supplier has to be in the full name

I said that

Maybe it should be called the Lotus - Renault R32 for the time being

[ESPImperium]

I wonder if Volkswagen are going to threaten Renault with legal action if they name the car 'R32'. :roll:

On my data sheets, ive got the chassis down as TBA at present.

Im pretty sure it will have a new chassis detail as well. And the team isnt Renault next year, its Lotus, so a Lotus 2012 Renault threadname would be more fitting.

Ive pretty much changes over all my terminology to Lotus, Caterham and Marussia now.