The 2010 Formula One season may only be six races old but Lotus have already decided to concentrate on developing next year's car.
Newcomers hope early switch in development will reap reward
The 2010 Formula One season may only be six races old but Lotus have already decided to concentrate on developing next year's car.
Lotus's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said updates to their T127 chassis will appear at the British Grand Prix in July before they switch their attentions to 2011.
"We still have stuff coming through and there will probably be a package for Silverstone, but now we are very much concentrating on 2011," he told
Autosport. "The 2011 model is going in the wind tunnel soon.
"This year we were always going to play catch up. Next year, with the big rule changes, it levels the playing field and we need to put our resources into that. So we want to keep pushing, but we want to look at next year as well."
Lotus have had the best results of the newcomers so far but Gascoyne thinks it unlikely they will be able to match any of the established teams this season.
"We want to get 10th [in the constructors' championship] and realistically, even if we made the car better, would we get ninth or eighth? Probably not," he added.
"Therefore is it worth putting resources into that, or switching them to next year? There is also the commercial aspect you want to be seen moving forward this year, but we want to take some people by surprise next year."
