The front exhaust system was expensive for Lotus Renault GP
After a remarkable start to the season, Lotus Renault GP witnessed a decline in performance and, consequently, its results as the races progressed. The technical director of the British team, James Allison, does not hide the fact that the unprecedented front exhaust system proved fatal for the team.
According to James Allison, the innovative concept of side exhausts prevented the Enstone team from finding the hoped-for success at the start of the season, as well as from developing the R31.
Deprived of its charismatic leader, Robert Kubica, the staff had nonetheless pinned a lot of hopes on this innovation, as Allison highlights: « At the time we made the decision for the forward exhaust system, everyone was very enthusiastic and it had shown great performance with the blown diffuser. This concept promised many good race results, but two or three things hindered us afterward… The first is that it turned out to be very difficult to develop, in addition to the car. The second reason is that it has always been very difficult to generate downforce. Consequently, we suffered from a significant lack of downforce on many circuits. »
The Brit explained that the team’s misfortunes were amplified on slow circuits, such as Singapore. The planned improvements could not be implemented due to the discoveries at the start of the season: « We arrived in Singapore with a mix of several packages. We had some apprehension regarding our performance on this circuit, but it should be noted that we were also optimistic because the drivers were on a series of good results! Furthermore, it is quite difficult to simulate the effect of different tracks of the season in the wind tunnel. »
Anyway, the engineer by training is quite positive about the last 5 races, which would be more suitable for the R31. However, the exhaust issue will need to be addressed next year: « For most of the circuits left to race, we should be able to achieve good results. We absolutely need to score points, as Force India is catching up and we must hold on to this 5th place. At the factory, many people are currently working on the 2012 car, but there’s a lot of work… For next year, we will return to a more conventional configuration and start from there for the improvements that will follow », concluded Allison.
Lotus Renault GP is currently the 5th strongest team and is ahead of Force India by 28 points.
