ZitatLotus technical director James Allison to stay - Eric Boullier By Edd Straw Tuesday, January 29th 2013, 14:36 GMT
Lotus technical director James Allison will remain with the team in 2013 despite being linked with a move to McLaren, according to team principal Eric Boullier.
AUTOSPORT understands that Allison was approached by McLaren as a potential replacement for Paddy Lowe, were he to move to Mercedes, and that the highly-rated Lotus man has also been sounded out by Mercedes and Ferrari.
But regardless of what moves happen elsewhere, Boullier is sure Allison is committed to Lotus.
"It's up to him, but my understanding is that definitely in 2013 he will be with us," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.
"He has a management style that maybe some other teams would like to copy and has obviously brought a lot to the team.
"A lot of people here trust him, me first of them because I was very actively working on making his job position secure within this team.
"I have a lot of trust in him and everybody does because he's a good communicator, a good co-ordinator, has very good technical skills and a good vision. He is very important in the organisation."
Sources indicate that Allison was happy to remain at Lotus provided he was certain that the team would have the development budget needed to challenge for the top three.
"I see no reason why it shouldn't be," Allison told AUTOSPORT when asked if he was confident that the resource he had was sufficient for the team to achieve its goals.
"The agreed budgets for this year are technically greater than last year so as long as we deliver a good car, there's no reason why not."
ZitatJames Allison: “There is an element of expectation from the E21”
Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison looks to the season ahead James Allison: “There is an element of expectation from the E21” How different are the 2013 regulations compared with 2012?
After a string of quite eventful rule changes and interpretations in the years since 2009 it looks as if 2013 is going to be a year of regulatory stability. There are only a few, very limited changes which comes as a considerable relief to the entire grid given the size of the transformation bearing down on the sport for 2014. Mind you, even with no changes to the text of the regulations, we never stop poring over the rules to look for new loopholes. Quite often, young engineers fresh from university will point out an ambiguity in the text of a regulation that has been settled for decades because they are looking at what is written with fresh eyes and no preconceived ideas about what is actually intended. Will the cars we see in 2013 look much different from those we saw in 2012?
I’m guessing not. There is one rule which opens the possibility for a change as we will now be permitted to fit a non-structural ‘vanity panel’ on the upper surface of the nose as a means of avoiding the duck-bill style designs that we saw in 2012. However, such a panel is optional and I would not be surprised if the majority of the grid chose not to make use of it. The panel will add a few grammes of weight and so is only likely to run on the car if a team can find a performance benefit for doing so. Does continuing with two drivers give the technical team benefits?
The best thing about sticking with our 2012 pairing is that they are both fast! Fringe benefits also include not having to re-invent the seat, pedals, steering wheel and so on. Not having to establish fresh relationships between engineers and drivers is also welcome. What is completely new and what is more familiar on the E21?
Depending on where you look, some parts of the new car are a ground-up redesign and in other areas we have further optimised the best bits of the design philosophy we’ve adopted for several seasons. The front and rear suspension layouts are substantially revised to try and give us better aerodynamic opportunities. The front wing is a continuation of the concepts we have worked on since the 2009 rules were published. For the rear wing system, we’ve continued to try to work on having a satisfactory level of rear downforce stability whilst having maximum DRS switching potential. Talking of DRS; what about the so-called Double DRS Device?
This is an area we continue to work on and the passive nature of the switching of our device means it is not outlawed by the latest regulations. It is not something which will be a silver bullet to transform our car, but it is something which could add performance as part of the overall design. Are there likely to be any further ‘secret weapons’ in the arsenal for 2013?
That would be telling. Does the E21 have great expectations on its shoulders?
The E20 proved itself to be an effective racing car, so there is an element of expectation from the E21. We have continued with our design themes and tried to build a more efficient and faster racing car based on all the lessons we learnt last year. How successful we have been at this we will only know once we take to the track at Grands Prix. What can we expect from Pirelli’s 2013 tyres?
We had a brief taste of the development tyre on track at Brazil and it did appear to be a step forwards. Pirelli have also published the compound list for 2013 and we are happy to see that they are sensibly aggressive choices. Pre-season testing will give us a much better idea of what to expect, but most of the indications suggest that the tyres will play a helpful part in making another attractive season. What are the goals and targets for 2013?
In terms of goals and targets, we never set out to build the second-fastest or third-fastest car; we set out to build the fastest and most effective car that we possibly can. We want to improve our car in all areas from last year’s and we want the improvements we make to be greater than those made by the opposition. However, having said all that, the official target established by the team’s owners is to achieve a minimum of third place in the Constructors’ Championship.
The fact allison stays despite all interest gives me a lot of confidence this year car is going to be a rocket and also that the team has enough resources to become again a real top team
The simple fact that there was interest for Allison from other teams is positive and encouraging! " title="ii" /> ( seems he's a desirable product in the market )
And he had a spark in his eyes when looking at the new car ( even if we all know what we saw was not the new car h" title="hih" /> )
I love the steering wheel as described below : Lotus secret weapon is the steering wheel of the newly launched E21 29 January, 2013
Lotus E21 secret weapon (Photo supplied by Lotus) Amid the razzmatazz and hype of the Lotus E21 launch we were able to uncover the team’s secret weapon for 2013 – the steering wheel on their new car – in an image (above) which they must have accidentally included in their media pack.
Lotus E21 cockpit Last year the steering wheel issue was one of Kimi Raikkonen’s complaints about the E20, apart from some discomfort the Iceman felt in the cockpit he also felt there were some redundant commands on the wheel. He thus spent the off-season developing a custom wheel which is set to revolutionise F1 cockpits. Romain Grosjean will also benefit from the sweeping changes.
The E21 steering wheel features never before used functions which are set to change the way racing and strategy takes place in modern grand prix racing. Many of the commands on the wheel remain a mystery but our in-office technical guru was able to decipher many of the steering button commands which we have listed below:
Mute – to silence irritating race engineers from telling those who know what they are doing, how to do things. Ice-cream – which prompts the Lotus team’s catering boss to rush off to the media centre with lollies to have the hacks write good things about the driver who presses the button. Sat Nav – important new addition for a driver who may have forgotten his way around a circuit. Smile – to keep everyone happy. Tweet – in keeping with the trend to keep fans informed at all times of exactly what is going on in the cockpit. Cold Knob – to control the temperature in the cockpit. Open Gate – for drivers who go off track and find closed gates in their way. Translate (Anti- Mumble) – useful for drivers who mumble over the radio as function also provides instant sub titles. Finishing Position – allows driver to pre-determine the position he wants to end the race in. Nap Mode – for boring races gives a driver time for a power nap while car goes into auto-pilot. Jump – appears to be a secret option the exact nature of which we are yet to understand. Mum – gives a driver the option to instantly connects his mother’s mobile phone for a quick chat when the need arises, also, when Mum calls it glows. Deploy Angry Birds – useful to launch at rivals during close racing situations. Like – for Facebook and in keeping with the social media craze. Jenson – we have asked the media people at Lotus to explain what the Jenson button does… The word is that these options will be available to both Raikkonen and Grosjean throughout grand prix weekends, not just in qualifying and races.
When pressed for more info on the other dials and gizmos on the E21 steering wheel, the team’s technical boss James Allison simply smiled and said, “That would be telling.” (Apex)
ZitatLotus says Raikkonen, Grosjean its 'trump card' for 2013 By Edd Straw Thursday, January 31st 2013, 15:11 GMT
Lotus says drivers its trump card for '13Lotus technical director James Allison believes his team's driver line-up will prove to be its "trump card" in 2013.
Lotus unveiled its striking new E21 challenger at Enstone on Monday and Allison is certain that Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will do the new machine justice.
"By far and away the biggest trump card we have to play this year is that we have got two drivers who start the year [in strong shape]," Allison told AUTOSPORT.
"One of them [Raikkonen] had a brilliant season last year and really got up to speed quite swiftly and no-one would deny that in the last half of the year his driving was absolutely top drawer stuff.
"Obviously, Romain had a few well-publicised moments and I think they will be useful lessons learned for him so he will have a much more productive year.
"We're going to start with two drivers that are properly competitive and are going to put a lot of points down the oppositions' throats."
Team principal Eric Boullier described his line-up as "the best pair of drivers that you can have on paper" and sees Raikkonen as its best shot for the title at the start of the season.
"He is definitely the lead driver in the team, even though they have equal status and both cars are technically very similar," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.
"Kimi is the natural fit to be the lead driver, but then we will see how the season develops."
But he added that he has no doubts about Grosjean's ability to iron out the mistakes that blighted the Franco-Swiss driver's 2012 campaign.
The 2011 GP2 champion has focused on the mental side of his game over the winter and is now ready to make the step up a level.
"There's no question mark now," said Boullier. "His approach is the right one.
"He has rebuilt his confidence and is more motivated than ever."
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