Gascoyne says Lotus ready to surprise

Date published : 12 Feb 2010 - 18:37:29

Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne has admitted to some compromises with the new T127 chassis, but is confident the car is capable of scoring points. The revived team did not get an entry for the 2010 Formula 1 season until September last year, so faced a race against time to be ready. It unveiled the first F1 design of its new era in an event in London this evening. "Inevitably there have been things we've had to compromise on, because it's got to work first time," said Gascoyne. "Probably we need to take some weight out of some of the components, and we made some design decisions very early on that we'll want to refine. "But I have to say I think we've designed a very contemporary 2010-spec car. "It's not out of date, it's very well designed, so I'm not worried I think we've got a very solid base to build on. "We will be a very solid professional team. We'll score some points and we'll spring some surprises towards the end of the year."[Due to limited time] you have to make compromises in design. You can't make things as light as you would want to, you can't do design iterations in the drawing office because you just don't have time. "But I think in the time that we've had, I can honestly say that we could not have done one single thing better than we've done it, and I'm very proud of the car that we've brought here today." He said that the Lotus project had excited and reinvigorated everyone involved. "Although it's a huge challenge to do it in the time, there's a great buzz about the factory," said Gascoyne. "And even for myself, I've been in the business 20 years, and you get tired; I've worked in big teams recently and it's been very difficult. "It's great fun going into work every day I feel like a teenager again." Gascoyne also believes that the team's relatively modest size makes it very well suited to the cost-conscious direction in which F1 is moving. "At Tyrrell we were 120 people at our biggest. In Hingham at the moment we're about 130 people, but you've got to add to that about 30 people in the design office in Cologne and around 50 people in the wind tunnel (in Italy)," he said. "I think things have definitely changed, and I think teams of 250 people can be competitive racing teams, and that's exactly what Formula 1 needed to do."