Caterham F1 Era End

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BELGIAN GRAND PRIX FRIDAY PRACTICE

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 27th August 2010

Lotus Racing took up where they left off at the last race in Hungary, with Friday’s Belgian Grand Prix practice sessions ending up with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli topping the new team’s time sheets in very mixed conditions on track.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP1: 15 laps, best time 2.07.189, 21st / FP2: 21 laps, best time 1.53.639, 20th “It feels good to be back. It’s always nice to be back on track, especially in Spa as it’s such a good track. Practice today went very well for me and I’m pleased with where we ended up. Unfortunately on the last run this afternoon I was blocked by another car which prevented me from going quicker with the same set of tyres as everyone else, but before that I was looking pretty good, so I feel confident for tomorrow.”

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP1: 15 laps, best time 2.07.955, 23rd / FP2: 15 laps, best time 1.53.480, 19th “It wasn’t too bad today considering the weather, but at least everyone was in the same position. There were no big problems - the car seemed to work well in all the conditions, but it’s always hard to draw a conclusion when the weather keeps changing and teams keep running different tyres. So you can’t read too much into the times today. The track itself feels fine – it’s a great track, and in the dry it will be really good. Fingers crossed for blue skies tomorrow!”

Dieter Gass, Sporting Director: “It was a difficult day today with the mixed and changing conditions. This morning’s run was pretty much meaningless, because of the weather, but at least it was better in the afternoon. We got a bit of dry running in in FP2 which gave us a chance to look at the tyres, but with the continuously changing conditions it was difficult to work on the set up. We’ll look at the data now and make a call on the set ups, downforce levels and ratios that we are going to run tomorrow, so I think we’ve got quite a bit of work to do this evening. Whatever happens, I’m confident we can maintain our position ahead of the new teams if the conditions stay stable. In the mixed conditions anything can happen, and you need a bit of luck to keep up the momentum, so let’s see what happens.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Obviously the weather today made it an interesting first day for everyone. The first session was very wet and we just ran on the full wets. In the second session we switched to the inters and then managed to run both sets of dry tyres, but the changing conditions make any meaningful work or comparisons very difficult. But I’m reasonably happy with where we are and look forward to some dry weather over the weekend.”

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SPA BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN LOTUS RACING

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 28th August 2010

Lotus Racing CEO Riad Asmat and the Malaysian flag brought a touch of luck to the team today at the Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying session as Heikki Kovalainen made it through to his second appearance of the season in Q2, and finished the session 16th. Jarno Trulli just missed out on Q2 after yellow flags at the end of an action packed Q1 forced him to back off, robbing him of the chance of joining his team-mate in the afternoon’s second session. With the Mercedes cars of both Schumacher and Rosberg having to take grid penalties, and Timo Glock’s Virgin being dropped five places after the session, the Lotus Racing cars will provisionally line up 14th and 15th, and with the T127s carrying the Malaysian flag on the engine covers at Spa to celebrate Malaysian Independence Day on 31st August, the team are looking forward to putting in a performance tomorrow to give all their fans in Malaysia and around the world something to cheer for in the unpredictable Belgian conditions.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP3: 14 laps, best time 1.51.384, 21st / QUALIFYING: 16th, 1.50.980, 12 laps “It was a great qualifying for us today, the second time we made it into Q2 like we did in Malaysia. It’s a shame Jarno didn’t make it through as well, and I was just ahead of him, but the team did a great job today and they should all be very pleased. We made the right calls on tyres in both sessions and in the second session it was really about fighting with Timo, and we nailed him so we achieved what we set out to do today. I think we should be in pretty good shape tomorrow against our direct competitors, and those just ahead, as it looks like the lower downforce circuits suit us, so I hope we have mixed conditions tomorrow and can give it our best shot.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP3: 14 laps, best time 1.50.600, 19th / QUALIFYING: 18th, 2.01.491, 9 laps “I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t make it into Q2, but congratulations to Heikki and the team for putting in such a good performance. It was a pretty crazy session, and it started badly for me when di Grassi lost his car - I was quicker than him, and I couldn’t avoid going over him. If he had let me by in the first place when I was much quicker, then it wouldn’t have happened. It’s difficult in changeable conditions, everyone gets surprised, but we’re still in a pretty good position tomorrow, so we’ll do our best to reward the fans.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “In the end it was a very good session for us today. It’s disappointing we didn’t get Jarno into Q2 as well, but the yellow flags at the end of his final run held him up, otherwise I’m sure he’d have joined Heikki in Q2. Heikki did a great job in spite of the conditions, and he managed to get the best out the car. We’ll be in our best starting positions tomorrow and we’re all looking forward to a good strong race. We’re clearly the quickest of the new boys, and tomorrow will be all about getting Jarno up with Heikki, getting both cars across the finish line, and making good on the performance we’ve put in today.”

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: “I’m absolutely delighted, for the whole team, and for everyone who supports us around the world. We managed to get into Q2 for the second time in our first season which is pretty fantastic by any measure. It’s a shame Jarno didn’t get in as well, but that’s what happens in racing, and this is a really good start after the summer break. It’s important to remember that we’re a small team, with limited resources, and I think that what we have achieved today, and will continue to achieve, is the stuff dreams are made of.

“I’m lucky enough that Tony deputised me for this weekend in place of him who unfortunately can’t be here, but I think Tony, Din and Nasa, our Deputy Team Principals, all wish they were here - that’s for sure! They’ve all sent a load of messages, and they’re delighted with how we performed today. Tony’s passed on his congratulations to everyone and has said that the guys have done a great job today. He, Din and Nasa are here in spirit without a doubt – and we wouldn’t be here in Spa without them.

“To top it all, it’s the Malaysian Independence day on the 31st, so it’s just perfect. For everyone in Malaysia Hari Merdeka is a really important day, and I’m just really proud to see our cars carry the flag today, and to have done so well.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “This is a very special day for me. It’s funny how things pan out. By me not being there Riad deputised for me and what a story! Riad has gone from a very special assistant for many years to a CEO, and now he’s on the pitwall commanding and directing. That is Lotus Racing. We make the unbelievable believable, and we show that you have to keep dreaming. Whatever happens tomorrow, it doesn't really matter. What matters today is Riad, Mike, Heikki, Jarno and the whole team who pulled out an amazing performance. Well done to all.”

tafiman

lotus 第一次。。 qualify。。 上到 P 13 ！！！

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lotus 第一次。。 qualify。。 上到 P 13 ！！！
tafiman 发表于 29-8-2010 17:02

    很多人被处罚。

tafiman

很多人被处罚。
maocheng 发表于 29-8-2010 05:28 PM

    是la。。。 lotus 赚到

今晚可以看到MS VS LOTUS

F60

所以我说如果Lotus要拿分最有机会就是这一次了。
不要说我每次泼冷水。

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BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 29th August 2010

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa lived up to all expectations and produced an incident packed race that saw Lotus Racing again finish ahead of their nearest rivals. Heikki Kovalainen recovered from a slow start to finish 16th, and Jarno Trulli crossed the line in 19th, a spin late on dropping him back a few places after he had put in a very strong performance in the constantly changing weather conditions.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) 16th, fastest lap 1.55.797 - lap 23, 3 stops – laps 1, 3, 33: “I had a bit of a problem at the start when the engine bogged down, and I activated the anti-stall, but I was already being passed by the time I could get up to speed. The rain had started and unfortunately I damaged my front wing in the last turn so I had to pit. We took a gamble with the inters but the rain stopped, so I had to come back in and I lost out to the group ahead of me. After that it was a question of doing the best job I could, and keeping us in with a chance of taking advantage of the rain at the end, and as it turned out we managed to pick up a few places at the end and finish 16th.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) 19th, fastest lap 1.55.103 – lap 24, 1 stop – lap 33: “It was pretty exciting out there, an eventful race where lots of things happened, but that’s normal for Spa! At the start I went wide to avoid Heikki and unfortunately was overtaken by a couple of other cars. After that I was struggling a bit in the early stages with my rear tyres overheating – fortunately they came back so I could started pushing and managed to pull away from the guys behind, so that was a good stint until the rain came. I had quite a big margin over my nearest competitor so I was looking pretty good, but then the safety car came out. At the restart I was following the other cars but obviously the visibility was very poor and I made a bit of an error on a high speed corner, touched the white line with the rear end of the car and it just slipped away from me, which meant I lost places. I continued, but then the race was over from there. I’m glad we got both cars home, and it’s good to see we’ve still got an advantage over our nearest rivals, so bring on Monza!”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An exciting race and a typically eventful one here in Spa. Neither driver had a great start which meant we lost a few places, and Heikki had a problem when the rain started. We changed him onto intermediates, but were then a little slow in changing him back, but he drove a great race, and was quick at the end in the wet conditions, and he again brought us home best of the new teams. Jarno drove a strong race. He struggled initially with the tyres, but in the middle part of the race his pace was very strong, and it’s just a shame that he had a spin in the difficult wet conditions as it would have been nice to have had both cars finish ahead of the other new guys. But despite that, both cars finished and overall this has been a good weekend for the whole team.”

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: “I feel great. I think we achieved what we wanted to do – we got both cars home and we’re still ahead of the other new teams. It’s a bit unfortunate that Jarno spun out, but it’s all part of racing. He recovered well and I think we’ll all move on from this point and feel confident we can put in a good performance in Monza, and the remaining races. I think the team did great today and there was maximum effort involved, so well done to everyone. The rain of course threw everything out of sync, but we survived it today and we’re really happy.”

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NABIL JEFFRI BECOMES YOUNGEST EVER F1™  TEST DRIVER

Duxford, UK 1st September 2010

The Imperial War Museum runway at Duxford played host to the youngest ever test driver in Formula One™ history today, with 16 year old Nabil Jeffri seeing his F1™ dream come true as he conducted a day of aero testing for Lotus Racing on the museum’s Cambridgeshire runway. Fairuz Fauzy and Heikki Kovalainen were both on hand to lend their advice to the young Malaysian and Nabil, a key member of the AirAsia ASEAN Driver Development programme, completed the day’s testing, and gave the team valuable pitstop practice throughout a busy day on track for the Anglo – Malaysian squad.

Stepping out of the car at the end of the day, Nabil was understandably excited about his day behind the wheel of the T127, saying “I have had an incredible day, one of the best days of my life, and I want to thank Lotus Racing, Tony Fernandes and Mike Gascoyne for giving me the chance to drive their car. I have to admit that the first time I went out it was pretty scary – everyone told me the acceleration would be unbelievable, and the braking would be so much greater than anything I’ve ever experienced, and it took a while to get used to that, but Heikki and Fairuz gave me some advice on how to settle in to it, and after a while I was more comfortable, and was able to get through the day’s plan. It’s such an honour to have had this opportunity, and it’ll be a long time before the excitement wears off, but I’ll keep on working hard to one day join Heikki, Fairuz, Jarno and the rest of the F1™ grid, and with the support of people like Tony and Lotus Racing, I’ve got a great chance of doing so.”

Also at the test was Lotus Racing driver Heikki Kovalainen, who joined the test to give Nabil some invaluable advice: “It’s a great experience for Nabil and it’s really good to see how well he did. He’s obviously very young, and he’ll remember this experience for the rest of his life. When you feel the power of a Formula One™ car for the first time it’s an incredible feeling and I told him to enjoy it, and not get stressed about trying to impress everyone too much. He did a great job today - he quickly picked up the correct procedures, and was working well with the whole team, which is pretty awesome when you think we’ve got the proper race team here today which could have been a bit daunting. It’s also great to see Lotus Racing investing in young talent, and we’re showing that the ladder to success in F1™ is there for anyone, wherever they are in the world, which is pretty cool, however you look at it.”

On hand to oversee the test was Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne, who said “I’m delighted that Nabil has done such a good job and I’d like to thank him for the work he put in today. Aero testing is an important part of the ongoing development of the car, and it’s great that we can give an opportunity to someone as young as Nabil to help us take another step forward. He completed the planned programme, gave clear and precise feedback, and we couldn’t ask any more of him than that. I’m sure this experience will help him take another step forward in his career, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on him to see if what he’s learnt today can help him take that next step up, in performance terms, in the Asian Formula BMW Championship.”

Team Principal Tony Fernandes was keeping a close eye on the day’s proceedings from his office in Malaysia, and said “When I first offered Nabil the chance to drive our car he couldn’t tell if I was joking or not, but I was very serious about giving a young Malaysian the chance to step up to the big time. He’s repaid my faith in him and has performed incredibly well, and that’s a source of real pride for me as he proves what I’ve always believed – keep dreaming, work hard to achieve what other people tell you is impossible, and your dreams will come true. I suspect Nabil will head back to Malaysia with his head spinning from everything that’s happened to him today, but now he can say he’s driven an F1™ car, and that will set his sights at the very top for the rest of his life. Congratulations Nabil – you’re a superstar!”

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ONE YEAR IN THE LIFE OF LOTUS RACING

Hingham, UK 2nd September 2010

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza marks the last European race of the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship. As the Lotus Racing team heads to Jarno Trulli’s home country, Jarno and a number of key team members take the time to look ahead to what promises to be another exciting race for the Anglo-Malaysian squad.

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer: “Looking back to last weekend, Spa was in many ways one of our best performance of the year so far. We have had better positions at the end of a number of races, but in terms of reliability, Spa was our strongest performance to date. Now we go to Monza and that’s always a special place to race – the Tifosi create an incredible atmosphere, and while it’s obviously focused on Ferrari, I think seeing Jarno and Heikki in our green and yellow cars will be pretty special for some of the most passionate motorsport fans in the world.

“Monza will also be very special for me, Tony, Din, Nasa, Riad and the whole team on a personal level. Race day is the 12th September, which is exactly one year to the day since we heard that our entry into the 2010 Formula One™ World Championship had been accepted. It’s hard to put into words just what that means to all of us, but it’s already been an incredible 365 days, and we have many more exciting times to come. I’ve been asked a number of times if I really thought we’d be able to do what looked to many like an impossible task – creating a team from literally just words on a piece of paper to now sitting 10th in the Championship, best of the new teams and with a very bright future ahead of us.

“Onto the track itself: Monza is unique as it’s now the lowest downforce circuit on the modern Formula One™ calendar. For the race weekend, we’ll have a revised low downforce package with new front and rear wings, plus a few other smaller modifications to the cars.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “After Spa I’m feeling really good physically and mentally. Before we got to Belgium, I had a proper rest for a week, and then got back into training for the second couple of weeks of the summer break to prepare myself for the end of the season. It paid off because I felt great all weekend in Spa and now I’m looking forward to Monza and then the remaining races. Monza is one of the real highlights of the year and it’ll be good to be back in Italy. It’s a very different type of circuit and it has a great atmosphere. Obviously Ferrari have huge support out in the stands, but so do the other teams as the fans just love F1™. I think it’ll be a pretty cool weekend – for us drivers it’s a high speed track and with the low downforce configuration it makes it very interesting to race there. For the fans it’s cool as well as the cars are pushed to the limit, and they look and sound pretty awesome on track.”

Jarno Trulli: “Monza is a very special Grand Prix. We Italian drivers have fantastic support out there, and the fans are really fired up for the race. It’s such a warm atmosphere, you can’t help but enjoy it. The track is challenging, but it’s not as technical as some of them. You obviously need good top speed, low downforce, good traction good braking stability. Everyone talks about the low downforce, but the brakes play a really crucial role. You need to have the confidence to brake as late as possible and as hard as possible at the chicanes, and then you need to have really good traction to get yourself out of them as quickly as possible. I think we saw in Spa that our car is pretty good at the quicker tracks, so I think we’ll be able to repeat our performance in Belgium – as long as we come out ahead of our nearest rivals we’ll be happy, and then we’ll be back in the air for the remaining races of 2010.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “I’ve had to watch the last few races on TV as other commitments have kept me away from the races, so it’ll be good to be back on track in Italy. The last couple of weeks have been very exciting for the whole team – we’ve seen Nabil Jeffri, a Malaysian superstar in the making, become the youngest ever driver to test an F1™ car at the aero test we ran on Wednesday, and it was a very proud moment for me to see him put in a great day’s work for us in what must have been a pretty stressful environment for such a young guy. He proves what I’ve always believed – work hard to achieve your dreams and they will come true. That’s the same for everyone in Lotus Racing – exactly one year ago on September 12th our Formula One™ dream came true, and now we’ll be competing at one of the world’s great race tracks, bringing the green and yellow cars back to where they belong, and I can’t wait to see the reaction of the crowds when we take to the track. Mike has already said what it means to him to see our cars racing hard just 12 months since we started work on this amazing team, and I echo his thoughts entirely. It has been an amzing journey already, but after Monza we’ll be heading back to Asia, and it’s going to keep getting more exciting with every step we take.”

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ITALIAN GRAND PRIX FRIDAY PRACTICE

Monza, Italy 10th September 2010

Race day in Monza will be a year to the day since Lotus Racing received confirmation of their entry to the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship. The team’s performance in today’s Free Practice sessions showed how far the team have come throughout the season, and reinforced their position at the head of the new teams. A good day’s work on track and in the garage saw Jarno Trulli on home turf finish in 19th, and Heikki Kovalainen 20th.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP1: 12 laps, best time 1.26.898, 19th / FP2: 38 laps, best time 1.26.204, 19th “First of all it’s great to be back home for the first time with Lotus Racing. We’ve had a fantastic reception here, and even though Monza hasn’t been particularly lucky for me, it felt great to be out on track today. We started with a problem early on in FP1, but the guys did a great job in a very short time to change the parts which weren’t working properly. They put the car back together fast enough to give me some track time in the first session, so thanks to them for that. In FP2 we got through the whole programme – we were mainly looking at tyre evaluation and setup work, so having completed that it’s been a positive day. Obviously we’d like to pull away a bit more from the guys behind us, and I think with some more work tonight we’ll be looking good for tomorrow and Sunday.”

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP1: 14 laps, best time 1.27.374, 20th / FP2: 41 laps, best time 1.26.306, 20th “It was a pretty good day. We had a bit of an issue this morning, but were able to identify the problem quickly and we only lost a bit of time. This afternoon everything went to plan – we had no issues at all and the car feels good on both low and high fuel loads. It obviously moves around a bit more in the low downforce settings, but it’s the same for everyone and I think our top speed’s where it should be so I think we’re looking pretty good for the whole weekend.”

Jody Egginton, Chief Race Engineer: “Excellent job by the guys all day, particularly this morning. We did the installation laps and then decided to make a couple of precautionary changes which meant both crews had to work hard to make sure we could get some track time. They did a great job and turned both cars around, which meant we pretty much completed both Jarno and Heikki’s programmes in the morning. In FP2 we completed a lot of laps, put a lot of kilometres on the tyres and tried a couple of setup changes. We’ve got a lot of data to go through tonight, but we’re pretty satisfied with where we are. There’s obviously a bit of cat and mouse going on between us and our nearest rivals with wing levels and fuel loads, but we think we’re where we should be, and that means it’s been a pretty good day.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “It’s really good to be back with the team after a few races where I’ve been watching away from the track. We started out with a bit of pressure, having to make some changes early on in the session, but that’s what we’re about – trying something and not being afraid to do so. This afternoon we ran a good number of laps and generated a lot of useful data, and as both drivers were happy with the car it’s been a good day. It’s a good day to come back - sitting on the pitwall it suddenly clicked for me that we’re one year on since we received the letter from Max confirming our entry. We’ve talked about it a lot, but it’s real – we’re now 14 races into the Lotus Racing story, and we’re here to stay.”

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A BIG STEP FORWARD FOR LOTUS RACING

Monza, Italy 11th September 2010

Best of the new boys and both cars ahead of Liuzzi’s Force India means the Italian Grand Prix qualifying session will go down as a good day’s work for the Lotus Racing team. Both Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen’s times kept coming down throughout the session and it ended with Jarno starting tomorrow’s race in 18th and Heikki 19th.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) FP3: 14 laps, best time 1.25.788, 19th / QUALIFYING: 18th, 1.25.540, 10 laps “It was a great qualifying session for the whole team today because both cars are in front of a Force India and it’s looking good for tomorrow. The mechanics sorted out a little problem on the car just before the session, and they’ve been working really well all weekend so it’s good to repay that with the result. It’s always good to be able to perform like this at your home race and being best of the new guys means it’s been a good day.”

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) FP3: 16 laps, best time 1.25.925, 20th / QUALIFYING: 19th, 1.25.742, 11 laps “I’m very happy with the performance today. It’s been a really good qualifying for both me and Jarno and we’re both in a good position for the race tomorrow. I had a great long run in yesterday’s practice and I’m looking forward to the race, perhaps more than most of the races this season. We’ve had a few races this season where we haven’t got the most out of the Friday sessions, but we did so yesterday, and that, combined with the promise of a dry race tomorrow and a very good race car, means I think we’ll put in a strong performance.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “It was an excellent qualifying session. I think we managed to get the most out of both cars today so well done to both drivers and the whole team. Overall I’m happy that we have the right level of wing for the race and after a trouble free session today we’re now looking forward to a solid two car finish tomorrow, ahead of our closest rivals.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “What an awesome qualifying session! I’m so happy today – what a great way to bring up our first year anniversary! I always felt this would be Jarno’s day, but that’s taking nothing away from Heikki who also did an immense job out there. We are 1.1 seconds off Pedro’s Sauber, and on a power track like Monza that is incredible. I’m so proud of the whole team – they have worked brilliantly all weekend, and it has paid off today with a great performance from everyone. Tomorrow is going to be special, but the goal remains the same – get both cars home and make sure we stay ahead of the other new teams.”

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