Team Lotus to ‘take a clear step into the midfield’ with blown diffuser update – expects to be one second quicker!

Here are some updates on Team Lotus ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP. The Hingham based outfit isn’t the only team on the grid bringing updates to Catalunya, but the Malaysian owned team is looking at a major improvement, one that will make lap times quicker by a full second. This will allow the team to ‘take a clear step into the midfield’ according to tech chief Mike Gascoyne.

“What was pleasing about Turkey was that the qualifying performance was really good, but we hadn’t brought any updates as most of the other teams had. Our update package is coming for Barcelona and that is a very significant upgrade package.

“We think our update is going to allow us to take a clear step into the midfield so that we are qualifying with them and out-racing them more and more. I think that we are reasonably happy, but Barcelona has got to see the next step forward. I think we’ll see a big step and I think there is more to come over the coming races,” the Brit said.

What’s it really about? “It’s a Red Bull-style exhaust and diffuser package,” Gascoyne revealed. “We didn’t implement a blown diffuser package last year, (and) were only able to really evaluate (this year’s) in the windtunnel from Christmas onwards, so we were playing catch-up in this area. The good thing is that it means we can catch up with those in front who already have it,” he added.

So far, Team Lotus hasn’t scored points, something which it set out to do consistently this year. Let’s see if this round of updates to the T128 will move it closer to that goal, and beat struggling midfield teams such as Williams in the process.

© 2011 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Fri, 20 May 11 01:12:17 +0000.

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2. Team Lotus: Not in midfield yet, but happy with race pace
3. Chinese GP: Team Lotus says they’ve joined the midfield
4. Update on the Lotus F1 Team: Issues with Force India, Kobayashi’s interest in the team, Fauzy’s reserve driver role

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