Lotus F1 Wants to Outscore New Teams in 2010

Lotus F1 Racing's technical director Mike Gascoyne will not settle for a so-and-so season at his return in Formula One next year, as he already set his first aims for the 2010 season. The former Renault, Toyota and Force India employer wants his team to become the best of the newly entrants, meaning at least an overall Top 10 appearance at the end of the year.

The Malaysian outfit will use Cosworth units next year, just like all the other F1 outfits debuting in the series in 2010. However, Lotus F1 Team was the first one to show live pictures of their wind tunnel model for next year, although the car is yet to undergo the crash tests imposed by the FIA.

However, considering the fact that the team has been admitted to the 2010 Formula One entry list in September – some months later than US Grand Prix Engineering, Campos Grand Prix and Manor F1 – is sole proof that their rate of development is encouraging to say the least.

“We can't hide from the fact that we are late to the party but we have already made good progress since our entry was confirmed in September. We already have a model running in the wind tunnel, we have just laid up our first chassis and our nose box is going through its first crash tests, but we still have a lot of recruitment to undertake between now and the start of the season,” said Gascoyne.

“Our initial aim is to be the best of the new teams and I would like to think we are already on our way to achieving that goal. We have to be realistic but our aim during 2010 will be to head the group of new entries and continually reduce the gap between our performance and those of the established teams,” added the team's technical director.

Unlike the other newly entrants, Lotus F1 can also brag about the fact that it doesn't need to chase down sponsors for their F1 operations. The team is completely backed by Malaysia companies – Tune Group and Naza Group – and already put in place a financial scheme for next season.