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Lotus E20 launch – first pictures of Lotus’s 2012 F1 car | 2012 F1 cars
The Lotus E20, the team’s 2012 F1 challenger, has been revealed today. See the video above for the first images of the car.
The team which competed as Renault in 2011 has changed identities and has an all-new driver line-up for this season.
The E20 will be raced by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Raikkonen will be first to drive the car in testing at Jerez in the coming week.
Lotus were known to have been working on a reactive ride height system for the E20, which they tested on its predecessor in Abu Dhabi last year. However the system was banned by the FIA last month.
Lotus E20 picturesMore images wlll be added here shortly
2012 F1 cars
- Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
- Force India VJM05 launch - first pictures of their 2012 F1 car
- McLaren MP4-27 launch - first pictures of McLaren's 2012 F1 car
- Caterham CT01 images revealed early
Browse all 2012 F1 cars articles
Image © Lotus F1 Team
Lotus E20 launch broadcast
Alonso glad Ferrari went radical
Lotus E20 to be launched today | F1 Fanatic round-up
Last year: Renault R31, this year: Lotus E20
The fifth of this year’s F1 cars will be seen for the first time today as Lotus prepare to unveil their E20.
The car takes its name from the Enstone factory the team is based at, which was previously home to Renault and Benetton. The E20 is the 20th F1 car to be built there.
Lotus are launching their car online at 4pm UK time.
F1 LinksF1′s Lewis Hamilton starting afresh after ‘battling everybody’ in 2011 (The Guardian)
“There were times last year when I was juggling too many things. There were too many things hanging over me, too many things which were unfinished, questions in my mind, whether it was purchases, investments, management, lawyers or family.”
Hamilton confident he can get better of Button (Daily Telegraph)
“I don’t even feel that when I was qualifying, even when I got pole, that I was extracting 100 per cent of what I can do. And in races even less than that.”
F1 teams hope to keep noses clean (The Times, subscription required)
“Speculation was growing [on Friday] night that Charlie Whiting, race director for the FIA, which sets the technical regulations that determine the shapes and sizes of Formula One cars, will fly to the first official test of the season next week to judge for himself whether they comply with the new rules. The season is yet to start, but controversy bubbles beneath the surface.”
Bianchi eyes non-F1 racing programme (Autosport)
“We are working on it. We are not sure yet, but I will try to have another programme as well [as F1].”
Sahara withdraws India cricket sponsorship, IPL team (Reuters)
“Sahara bid $370 million to become owners of the IPL Pune franchise in 2010 and invested $100 million in Force India for a 42.5 percent stake in the Formula One team last year.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the dayMassa: "Er, I think Lewis already crashed into this one."
Once again we had lots of great suggestions for our caption competition.
Special mentions go to Mole, SamC, Sw6569, Arhn, Fcofdz and Mike the Bike Schumacher.
But the winner was robk23 – see his choice of caption on the picture here.
From the forum- Lots of talk among fans planning to go to the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix
- Matters go from bad to worse in the WRC as the FIA confirm it has failed to reach a new broadcasting deal
- A new offshoot of guess the circuit: it’s guess the corner
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1Then-BMW motorsport boss Gerhard Berger voiced his unhappiness with the Williams FW24 chassis his engine would be mounted in on this day ten years ago:
“It is true that after the first tests the new car did not produce the lap times we were expecting,” he said. “I always regard the speed of a new car on its first outing as a very important sign. And, even taking into account the need to make chassis set-up changes, we are not satisfied.”
Image © Renault/LAT, Ferrari spa
Caterham announce Giedo van der Garde as third driver | 2012 F1 season
Dutchman Giedo van der Garde has been announced as Caterham’s third driver.
Van der Garde finished fifth in GP2 last year, his best result in three years of competing in the category.
The 26-year-old said: “I’m very happy to become a part of the Caterham F1 Team family today and I’m very excited about the next step in my career within Formula 1.
“The team is fresh, with some fantastic people here. Tony Fernandes is extremely ambitious and he has brought in a lot of very good people in to help grow this team for future success. I’m looking forward to learning and moving forward with the team in and out of the car.
“It’s great for Holland that we again have a Dutch driver who is connected to Formula 1. Being the only Dutch driver now is very good for the sport in Holland, as the interest was perhaps on the decline since the [Jos] Verstappen years, however I hope to generate the same excitement for my country and really bring Formula 1 to them.”
Team principal Tony Fernandes called van der Garde a “very exciting prospect”.
He added: “His performances in GP2, particularly in 2011, mark Giedo out as one of motorsport’s brightest prospects, and securing him as reserve driver is a real coup for our team. I am sure he will flourish on and off track, and we wish him all the best as he takes the next step into Formula 1 with us.”
According to the team, van der Garde’s duties will include some appearances in first practice sessions during the season.
View the updated list of 2012 F1 drivers and teams
2012 F1 season
- Lotus E20 launch - first pictures of Lotus's 2012 F1 car
- Caterham announce Giedo van der Garde as third driver
- Sauber technical director James Key leaves the team
- Ferrari have "taken a few more risks", says Fry
- Ferrari F2012 key changes explained
- Karthikeyan: Indian Grand Prix performance key to HRT return
- Domenicali: F2012 is "not so pretty... but that doesn't count"
- VJM05 is "a big departure" - Green
- Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
- Force India VJM05 launch - first pictures of their 2012 F1 car
Browse all 2012 F1 season articles
Image © Caterham
Follow F1 test action with AUTOSPORT
Bianchi eyes non-F1 racing programme
Caption competition 4: Ferrari F2012 | Caption competition
Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Ferrari F2012 launch, 2012
What do Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa really make of the new Ferrari?
It’s over to you to decide what Alonso and Massa had to say as they pulled back the covers on the new Ferrari F2012 yesterday. Supply your captions in the comments.
Remember to look out for a selection of the best in tomorrow’s Comment of the Day in the daily round-up.
Caption competition
- Caption competition 4: Ferrari F2012
- Caption competition 3: Kimi Raikkonen
- Caption competition 2: Fernando Alonso
- Caption competition 1: Jenson Button
Browse all previous caption competitions
Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
Van der Garde gets Caterham test role
Force India deny Sutil was dropped over Lux incident | F1 Fanatic round-up
Adrian Sutil, Force India, Korea, 2011
In the round-up: Force India insist the decision to drop Adrian Sutil was not influenced by his impending court case.
LinksTop F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Force India head insists Adrian Sutil snub had nothing to do with GBH incident (Daily Mirror)
Bob Fearnley: “Adrian did have an exceptional season, he is an extremely talented driver, and as importantly an extremely nice person who fitted in well with the team. But we had to look at where we felt our long-term strengths lay. Adrian had been with us for a number of years, and we genuinely believed the future with us was with Paul [di Resta] and Nico [Hulkenberg].”
Jerez running order revealed (Autosport)
“Mercedes is running last year’s car but using its three days of running to evaluate tyres, while HRT is only running Pedro de la Rosa in its 2011 challenger on the first two days.”
Launch Analysis: McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 (ScarbsF1)
“When compared to the maximum heights (the dotted line on the drawing), it’s clear this is a very low nose overall. This creates less space under the raised nose, but the teams snow plough device under the nose works aggressively as a turning vane, so perhaps the team don’t need the higher chassis to get the correct airflow to the sidepods leading edge.”
“One of Mieres’s finest performances came in the British Grand Prix of 1955, held at the Aintree circuit, formed from the perimeter road of the Grand National course. In front of a capacity crowd, he and his Maserati 250F succeeded in splitting the four cars of the all-conquering Mercedes-Benz team, leading the car of Piero Taruffi before retiring with engine failure.”
COTA gets a special visitor today (Circuit of the Americas)
“Today Texas Governor Rick Perry made a visit to the Circuit of The Americas construction site.”
Broadcast Award for BBC F1 team (BBC)
“The prize, for the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, was praised as ‘very slick, accessible and compelling coverage of the season finale’.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the dayIt’s fair to say most commenters weren’t impressed with HRT re-hiring Narain Karthikeyan. PT puts the case for the defence:
the idea that Narain isn’t a talented driver is as wrong as saying the sky is green. He was a consistent podium finisher and race winner in British F3 along with the likes of Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson and Antonio Pizzonia. Narain was spoken of in the same light as these guys and in the 2000 Macau Grand Prix and Korean Super Prix was untouchable – he set pole and fastest lap on both the meetings and won the latter while crashing out at Macau.
He finished his first Formula Nippon race in 6th place. It was only after that, during his World Series by Nissan (now World Series by Renault) years from 2002 to 2004 that his motivation seemed to waver and began to appear like a mediocre driver.
But in first F1 year in Jordan he did impress and had a few great performances though he ultimately proved to be inconsistent was overtaken by team mate Tiago Monteiro.
You must remember that in 2011 he returned to F1 after six years away from it racing machines as wide apart as the LMP1 Audi R10 sports prototype (in which he did impress) and NASCAR trucks. By that time F1 had changed and he was placed in HRT along with Vitantonio Liuzzi who was an active F1 driver. Even Daniel Ricciardo was someone who was progressing through the single seater ranks and had tested extensively with Red Bull. These reasons could account for the fact that the team-mates got the better of him. He also did not have age on his side.
This year though would give an indication of Narain’s true potential because he is placed with someone who is older than him and who hasn’t been as active an F1 driver as Liuzzi was. Narain needs to perform better than him.
PT
- How would you improve the look of the 2012 cars?
- Honda are entering the WTCC
There are now ten different F1 Fanatic Quizzes with which to test your Formula 1 knowledge. Have you taken them all yet? Find them here:
Happy birthday!No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1Stirling Moss was unimpressed with paddock whispers that his Lotus 21 was so well-suited to the Warwick Farm circuit that he had the 100-mile race in the bag before it had even started.
So he decided to race a Cooper instead – and duly won the non-championship race, held on this day 50 years ago.
Image © Force India F1 Team
Sauber technical director James Key leaves the team | 2012 F1 season
Sergio Perez, Sauber, Interlagos, 2011
Sauber have lost technical director James Key just days before the launch of their new car.
In a statement issued by the team Key said: “I’ve enjoyed the past two years working at the Sauber F1 Team.
“It has been a very intense and interesting time, in which we had to manage the transition from a much larger team to a smaller one, and everybody handled that very well. I think the team is now well set for the future and I wish it the very best. I have been offered a new role back in the UK, which I decided to accept.”
Team principal Peter Sauber added: “A qualified team shares the overall technical responsibility. This structure has proved to work well at other racing outfits.
“Over a period of almost two years, James has accomplished a lot for our team. Especially in the difficult transition period from a manufacturer team into a private enterprise, he contributed significantly to ensure the team regained stability. We would like to thank him for his efforts and wish him all the best for his future.”
Key joined Sauber in 2010 having previously worked for Force India.
The Sauber C31 is due to be launched on Monday in Jerez.
2012 F1 season
- Lotus E20 launch - first pictures of Lotus's 2012 F1 car
- Caterham announce Giedo van der Garde as third driver
- Sauber technical director James Key leaves the team
- Ferrari have "taken a few more risks", says Fry
- Ferrari F2012 key changes explained
- Karthikeyan: Indian Grand Prix performance key to HRT return
- Domenicali: F2012 is "not so pretty... but that doesn't count"
- VJM05 is "a big departure" - Green
- Ferrari F2012 launch - first pictures and video of Ferrari's 2012 F1 car
- Force India VJM05 launch - first pictures of their 2012 F1 car
Browse all 2012 F1 season articles
Image © Sauber F1 Team
Jerez running order revealed
Technical director Key leaves Sauber
Key parts company with Sauber
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