Mike Gascoyne has again stressed his desire for Lotus to be the most competitive of those outfits granted entry to F1 next season.
Tech boss wants relaunched outfit to be the best of F1's new teams
Mike Gascoyne has again stressed his desire for the new Lotus team to be the most competitive of those outfits granted entry to Formula One next season.
The team's chief technical officer has set the target despite Lotus only winning their place two months ago after BMW's withdrawal saw the Sauber team lose out.
The other newcomers, Campos Meta, Manor GP and US F1, had already been announced by the FIA in June, while the FIA could yet grant Sauber - who have new backing - a place after Toyota announced its withdrawal last week.
Gascoyne's involvement is his latest in a Formula One career spanning 20 years spent working for the likes of Jordan, Renault, Toyota, and most recently Force India.
His experience means he is all too aware of the challenges facing Lotus over the winter. Even so, Gascoyne is confident the team will be in good shape when they compete in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14.
"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," he told
www.thesportbriefing.com.
"We already have a model running in the windtunnel, 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.
"It is not only the challenge for developing the car, but we need to establish an entire race team, which is no small task."
He added: "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."
The new Lotus team will be jointly owned by Malaysian companies Tune Group and Naza Group, and an annual budget of around £55 million has been confirmed.
The marque is one of the most successful in the history of the sport, winning a total of 79 races between 1958 and 1994 as well as world titles for Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.
Changing circumstances
Their rebirth comes at a time when the sport is adjusting to the departure of Honda as well as BMW and Toyota as team owners.
Gascoyne believes the entry of new independent teams will be crucial as Formula One attempts to adapt to its changing circumstances.
"Recent economic trends have forced all businesses to rethink their approach and all Formula One teams - and manufacturers - have taken big steps in recent years to reduce their budgets," he added.
"The result of these efforts has allowed new independent teams to enter the sport, irrespective of the recent unfortunate decisions by some car manufacturers.
"Adaptation to changing circumstances is the key to long-term survival and I think this is the sort of evolution process that Formula One is experiencing at the moment."
