Lotus sign Red Bull gearbox/hydraulic system deal

[Sleeper]

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=49377

Interesting, I can see this team making a big jump forward for next year.

[UltimateDanGTR]

I like the way Lotus are doing this-certainly alot of ambition and they are being very proactive in tyring to become competitive. credit to them and I hope it pays off.

As long as the proton/group lotus shannanigans get sorted that is.

[steveaki13]

Lets hope this lifts Lotus into the midfield, and gets them on their way.

[Sleeper]

Thinking about this since I first posted, I'm quite surprised as I thought they were after a complete rear end from Renault, engine, gearbox, hydraulics and KERS. Considering the packaging demands Newey makes its not hard to see why Lotus would want the RBR rear end.

If I was running Virgin and/or HRT now, I would be looking at making a similar sort of tie up with Williams, anything to get rid of those oversized and unreliable Xtrac units and Williams certainly have no trouble sorting out their system with the Cosworths.

[52Paddy]

Great news. I'm very impressed by Lotus' ambitious and professional approach to their return to F1. Hopefully this pays off in terms of performance and subsequent results in 2011 :up:

[DazzlaF1]

Its a deal that makes a hell of a lot of sense seeing that all 3 of the newbies apparently use the same unreliable and outdated rear-end systems.

For Lotus, it makes total sense, Red Bull also use the Renault powerplant, the same one Lotus are due to announce so it makes the design of the 2011 car much easier for them when it comes to their rear-end. I remember Sauber did a similar deal when they got the Ferrari engines in the late 90's and it did them no harm.

It would be a good idea for Virgin to do a similar tie-up with Williams if Virgin are still using the Cossie's

[VkmSpouge]

It makes sense for Lotus to switch to the Red Bull gearbox with the Renault engine but while having a better gearbox should improve their reliability it won't be that (or the engine) which is going to push them closer to the midfield.

[Duchess]

This is super good news, this should lift Lotus easily into the midfield next season now that they've got a proper set-up defined. :up: The announced switch to a Renault engine for 2011 made me nostalgic, wonder if they might resurrect the 95T theme and paint the car the JPS colours!

Not that I dislike the green and yellow, it's beautiful to see on the grid.

[DazzlaF1]

It makes sense for Lotus to switch to the Red Bull gearbox with the Renault engine but while having a better gearbox should improve their reliability it won't be that (or the engine) which is going to push them closer to the midfield.

True but we all know that the archaic xtrac systems the newbies are using is a major facto in keeping them back where they are. At least Lotus now look like they're on the road to at least being competitive.

[Sleeper]

True but we all know that the archaic xtrac systems the newbies are using is a major facto in keeping them back where they are. At least Lotus now look like they're on the road to at least being competitive.
It definitely gives them a much more solid base to work from, and next years car should be far more aggressive anyway since they had to go conservative this year with only 5 months to design and build the thing.

[VkmSpouge]

True but we all know that the archaic xtrac systems the newbies are using is a major facto in keeping them back where they are. At least Lotus now look like they're on the road to at least being competitive.

The major factor is lack of downforce as Sleeper said they will have a much more aggressive car next year which will be the thing that pushes the team forward. While Xtrac has proven unreliable for Lotus (not sure whether this has been the case for Virgin and Hispania) I don't think it has been that which has contributed to their lack of pace in a significant way.