Lotus E22: Lateral thinking could pay off

The first public appearance of the Lotus E22 was a long time coming.

An initial rendering - which revealed the 'twin-tusk' nose - was revealed within moments of the McLaren launch nearly a month ago, and a few spy shots were issued from last week's Jerez 'filming' day, but it was not until the first day of the Bahrain test that the car made its true debut.

This delay proved to be worthwhile as the 22nd car from Enstone is a unique proposition, not least with its double-pronged nose. Other details around the sidepods and its asymmetric exhaust layout mark it out as departure from other teams' designs.

Inevitably the twin-tusks draw most of the immediate attention. This distinctive solution to the 2014 aerodynamic regulations makes the right-hand tusk form the mandatory low nose tip - in a totally legal manner, as AUTOSPORT explained when the design was first revealed.

The other tusk is also structural and serves as both a crash structure and the mounting for the front wing. In doing this the nose design not only meets the new regulations, but places the obstruction of the nose tip away from the more sensitive centreline.

The tusks seemed bizarre at first, but are well thought through © XPB

Instead the tusks each form the start of the aerodynamic solution. Beneath each tusk are two turning-vane-like fins. These set up a flow structure that leads to the normal turning vanes and serves to direct a stronger airflow towards the front edge of the floor and diverts the front tyre wake away from the same area.

This is an aggressive design strategy and actually presents a larger nose surface to the airflow, but this is compensated by the better airflow trailing off the tusks.

Beneath the nose, the front wing is a development of last year's six-element design, revised to suit the narrower regulations. The cascades and end vanes are all twisted more tightly to send their wake around the outside of the front tyre. Aiding airflow passing inside the front wheel are new vanes and flicks on the front brake ducts.

Lotus has been able to keep quite a tidy sidepod package. They are not as undercut as other teams', but Lotus uses the top surface allied to a wraparound vane to curl airflow around the coke bottle tail towards the diffuser area.

In this early guise the sidepods also feature an unusually large cooling outlet, but this can no doubt be reduced as the team gets to grips with the Renault power unit's cooling demands.

One distinctive feature of the engine cover is an inlet and cooling outlet on its spine. This appears to be routing air towards the turbocharger enclosure, then venting up under the rear wing.

The engine cover spine is another area where the Lotus stands out © XPB

With the turbos requiring a ballistic cover to prevent debris exiting the bodywork should the unit fail at 125,000rpm, the turbo runs very hot and a specific cooling flow will help reliability.

At pitstops the team was mindful to fit fans to the inlet to continue to blow air over the turbo while the car was at a standstill.

At first these parts looked to be an element of the Drag Reduction Device tested so extensively last year. However, there appears to be no return for the rollhoop inlets that were a season-long feature of the 2013 E21. So it's likely that the complicated 'device' (as the team always referred to it) is not going to make a return any time soon.

Prior to this week, the E22 completed two days at Jerez, where the first day resulted in a single lap, but the second day brought nearly 100km of reliable running. On its first day in Bahrain the car suffered issues, with the team noting that the energy store (battery) was a problem and required changing during the day.

Lotus takes a different packaging approach to the ERS electronics to fellow Renault-runner Red Bull, with the control units for the ERS-K and ERS-H being mounted under the fuel tank with the energy store, whereas Red Bull mounts its in the sidepods.

Lotus had an impressive diffuser design last year and has kept its benefits © XPB

The Renault turbo engine then sends its single tailpipe out over the gearbox and rear crash structure. Again Lotus departs convention and has offset the exhaust tailpipe from the car's centreline. This allows a neat installation for the rear wing mounting pillar.

As the beam wing has been deleted from the regulations, teams can either mount the rear wing with a pillar or through the endplates and the floor.

Lotus opted for the lighter pillar solution, but this design has aero implications, both because the pillar is an obstruction to the airflow and its mounting point to the rear wing creates turbulence under the wing.

Other teams either use two pillars or like McLaren use an inverted Y-shape mount. Lotus's asymmetric pillar is slimmer overall and has less impact on the wing surface, yet the offset design is unlikely to upset the car's aero symmetry.

A strong feature of the E21 was the outswept diffuser design. This swept outwards as much as it sloped upwards, which increased the expansion of the air within the diffuser for more downforce. Lotus has been able to keep this element, and keep the airflow within the diffuser attached, even without the benefit of exhaust-blowing.

Looking at the diffuser from behind, there appears to be no hole for the starter motor to be inserted into. In recent years this hole has been exploited for aero benefit as it has been blown by either airflow or the exhausts.

This year Lotus and most other teams have fitted a hinged flap that closes off the hole when no starter is inserted. As the flow from the starter hole is not as strong, closing it off seals the diffuser from leakage through the hole. Like so much else on the E22, the starter hole appears to be offset to the left, suggesting Lotus has a new and different gearbox cluster layout. In past years both McLaren and Mercedes have each had such offset set-ups.

Despite all the commercial pressures on it, Lotus has produced one of the cars with the greatest potential among the 2014 designs.

There's a distinct degree of lateral thinking with its alternative solutions, and if the Renault engine can be made dependable then there's a real opportunity for the team this year.