Lotus is the first team to confirm that it is skipping the Jerez test at the end of this month, and the Enstone outfit will instead debut its 2014 car at the second test in Bahrain.
Teams have had to make the choice between missing the test and opting for extra R&D time, or attending it and spending the interval before Bahrain reacting to what was learned.
Lotus technical director Nick Chester said: “We’re going to keep our car under wraps a little longer than some other teams. We’ve decided that attending the Jerez test isn’t ideal for our build and development programme. We are likely to unveil the car before attending the Bahrain tests, and in Bahrain we should really be able to put the car through its paces in representative conditions.”
Despite the delay, Chester insists that all is going well with the new car.
“From our perspective the figures look promising and development has been positive. That said, we are very much working with very little idea of what the other teams are doing. This is the first year of radically different regulations which means that all teams are developing their cars along potentially quite different avenues. It’s fascinating for us engineers and I hope it is fascinating for the fans too. We think we have a very good solution to the challenge and hopefully this will be seen when the E22 turns its wheels in anger.
“We’ve made very good progress with the various homologation tests which took place before Christmas including chassis squeeze and side impact loading tests as well as the rear crash structure, meaning we just have the nose test to complete the car’s homologation. We’ve undertaken chassis fits for Romain and Pastor. Certainly, our partners who have seen the car have reported themselves to be very impressed with the layout and various solutions to the new technical challenges.”
Adam Cooper F1 
I can’t believe that with such radical rule changes that they conclude that there isn’t a huge amount to be gained from just getting something running on the track for a good shakedown. Turning up in Bahrain with a more developed car that can’t complete any long runs would be a disaster.
…and this won’t help dampen the rumours about the team’s financial position either.
So THAT cheque is still in the mail, somewhere…
At a time of major change and following on all the debate over lack of testing, these people opt out?
it makes you wonder if they’re even building a car…
So I’m assuming they’re using a renault engine, right? Has that been confirmed? I don’t remember hearing it announced.
They have no confirmed engine supplier.
Helps give traction to CTP’s thought above, which had occurred.
Something is afoot. I doubt that the problem is they don’t have a chassis, since they’re saying that their ‘partners’ have seen the car. But to miss any testing and say it’s a part of their game plan is hard to believe. The risk of having poor weather cut short an already shortened schedule is far too likely a prospect, unless you’ve encountered a problem that cannot be corrected by the time testing starts. Given the significant changes taking place, I’d say there’s a powertrain issue (or as some have already opined, a lack of thereof) after all that’s the component that is most significantly changed this year.
Has Kimi been paid? What is the budget for this years car? How much capital has been available for the 2014 R&D? Is Maldonado’s mega bucks being divided out in stages over the season?
I fear the 2013 competitiveness of Lotus is about to take a hit. The quote above about holding back is classic F1 winter b/s.
Arrogance compounded by cover up multiplied by poor business sense. Sounds like a formula for failure to me.
The engine question posed by Mr.Hands and answered by Gridlock is truly astounding, but I have to believe it is/was a foregone conclusion. Right? Right???
I hope we are all wrong and that Lotus can make a competitive appearance this year……..or should that be an appearance of any kind?
Lotus did not attend the December Pirelli tyre test in Bahrain, so it has had only the brief wet session in Brazil to gather data on the new tyres to feed back into the design and simulation programs.
Reminiscent of Williams before the start of 2013 when, from memory, they said there was more to be gained by launching the car later in the development process and missed the first test. At the 2nd test it was launched and I think Pastor described it as a definite step forward… It all went downhill from there. I bet he’s having nightmares…
Maybe Lotus will miss all 3 tests and turn up in Australia with basically last year’s car, a new paint job and a slightly lower nose.