Lotus has thrown its toys out of the cot and spent a fair portion of the time McLaren was launching its new car by publishing a series of childish tweets (see below). The episode reached a climax when the team released this teaser image of its 2014 F1 car, the E22.
Of course, Lotus is pissed off at McLaren for what appears to be the certain poaching of its Team Principal Eric Boullier. We have to question, though, are schoolyard antics and name calling the correct response for what is supposed to be a professional F1 team, albeit one who does like to communicate with a very informal voice?
Anyway, that’s the side show, the main event is that two-pronged nose on the E22. The car won’t make its debut until the second week of pre-season testing in Bahrain (19–22 February).
[Source: Twitter]
UPDATE: Lotus has revealed a new photo from above, clearly showing the uneven twin forks on the nose of the E22.
Already tired of the #McLarenMP429 launch? Ok, best stay tuned as our #E22 is set to unveil its true colours soon… pic.twitter.com/pPN4auLOuH
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
If we can promise you one thing today… It’s that our nose doesn’t look like this. #E22 pic.twitter.com/ohG56rKzYQ
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
And we can also promise that the #E22 won’t look like this either… pic.twitter.com/bm5SCidLL8
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
And here’s our beauty #E22 #ImStillSexyAndIKnowIt pic.twitter.com/VWA69KnQRK
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
Exclusive behind the scenes pic of Eric Boullier’s leaving present. Something to read before the season starts… pic.twitter.com/j9dAE6eWG6
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
We just can’t help it, here is another view of our new challenger #E22 #LotusF1Team pic.twitter.com/Y3L8Hdfx8m
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 24, 2014
8 replies on “2014 Lotus E22 previewed”
Certainly the least ugly nose so far. Is it me, or does the near side fang look longer than the other? (Or is it cut -off in the photo?)
Yes James, well spotted, as the new photos from above show.
That’s really weird! I’d love to hear their theory on what the two tusks are supposed to achieve over the anteater nose.
Aaron, it’s all about the regulation.
The first ever asymmetrical F1 car?
The regulations state that the car can only have 1 front nose, so they’ve gotten around it by shortening one of the tusks, and made sure that the tusk mount was from behind a certain part of the nose, so its not technically considered (according to the words of the regulations) to be apart of the nose cone.
[…] Lotus isn’t an attendance at all for the Jerez test, choosing to wait until testing moves to Bahrain. Marussia is hoping to run its car tonight. […]
[…] However, the other Renault-powered cars didn’t fare quite so well. Daniil Kvyat (1:44.346) could only manage five laps in the Toro Rosso STR9, while Romain Grosjean (1:44.832) did just eight laps in the first outing for the Lotus E22. […]