Lotus to switch to long-wheelbase car from Italian Grand Prix
Lotus is planning to introduce a longer wheelbase car in time for the Italian Grand Prix
The Enstone-based team had hoped to get the revised E21 ready in time for this weekend's race in Belgium, but it failed to complete all its necessary test proofing beforehand.
Sources have revealed that although the car passed all the mandatory crash tests that are required because of the scale of the revisions, there was an issue with reliability proofing for parts fatigue that meant the team did not wish to risk running it at Spa.
Lotus is confident that the matter will be sorted in the next few days, which means the tweaked car should be ready to race for the first time at Monza.
It is expected that the changes planned for the Italian Grand Prix will be the last major tweaks for this season, as its development focus switches onto 2014.
Lotus owner Gerard Lopez told AUTOSPORT recently that an update programme would remain in place, but it would not be as extensive in the closing stages of the campaign.
"In the second half of the season all you are doing is coming up with new wings, you're not look at changing the wheelbase or things like that - those are things you do in the first 10 races," he said.
Coulthard drives Loeb's Pikes Peak record breaker
Nico Rosberg says Mercedes not yet F1 title contenders
How one of F1’s greatest names was revived
With its eponymous Formula 1 team falling into obscurity in the 90s, the Brabham name looked relegated to the manufacturers' history books. But after a long legal battle, the family reclaimed its rights and in 2018 launched Brabham Automotive. David Brabham discusses what came next for the iconic brand
Tsunoda rates start to F1 2022 season as 7/10
Yuki Tsunoda believes he has made a measurable improvement as a driver during his second season in Formula 1, rating his year to date as seven out of 10.
Norris: Imola F1 podium still "blows my mind" given McLaren's pace
Lando Norris says his third-place finish at Imola still "blows my mind" given McLaren's pace compared to its Formula 1 rivals, calling it "one of my best podiums."
Ferrari's F1 2022 engine gains greatest for more than 25 years
Ferrari's engine gains for the 2022 Formula 1 season are the greatest it has managed in more than 25 years, according to team principal Mattia Binotto.
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…