Successful start for Lotus engine

Date published : 07 Feb 2010 - 12:34:01

Lotus have fired up the engine of their new F1 car for the first time.The Cosworth V8 was successfully started at Lotus Racing in Hingham, Norfolk, on Saturday after some minor technical delays. The team's technical director Mike Gascoyne told BBC Radio Norfolk there was still plenty of work to do. "We'll be shaking the car down on Tuesday, just getting this fire-up is one thing, there's still a lot of parts to go on there," he said. Lotus are aiming to be the best of the new teams in 2010, with team principle Tony Fernandes publically challenging Virgin Racing's Richard Branson. Virgin had their car out on the Silverstone track at the end of last week, but Gascoyne says Lotus are following hot on their heels ahead of Friday's official launch. "We're on the home run now, and that's the first Lotus Cosworth that's fired up for 27 years, so that's a big milestone," he said. But the former Toyota and Force India technical chief admits the talk of Lotus' illustrious history is something he's trying to put to the back of his mind. "They're nice things, but we're looking to the future not the past, it's all about getting ready for the first test and the first race in Bahrain," he said.