Lotus hope to rival Brawn debut

Lotus are returning to Formula 1 after leaving the sport in 1994
Mike Gascoyne, technical director of the new Lotus F1 team which will initially be based in Norfolk, says he hopes to replicate Brawn GP's success.

The former Toyota team principle is currently overseeing development of Lotus' new car for 2010, and says he has great ambitions.

Gascoyne told BBC Radio Norfolk: "It may take a couple of years to achieve but obviously winning is our aim."

"We've got a great heritage that we've got to live up to."

Brawn GP enjoyed stunning success this year, winning the constructors' and drivers' championships in their debut season, but Gascoyne says Lotus is a different prospect.


Insight - Lotus's F1 return
"It's a very different situation because the Brawn GP team was born out of the Honda team," he added.

"That had huge investment, they had 850 people working for them, years of research, two wind tunnels, there was a huge investment in that programme.

"This is a start-up from scratch, so it's a totally different thing."

As far as the development of the new car is concerned, Gascoyne says design is at an advanced stage already.

"We've just started wind tunnel testing last week in Italy, and have got 30 people working on the design of the car, based in Cologne," he said.

"We've just started machining chassis patterns, started putting the first parts out, so it's going to be tight but we're on target.

"It will be a bit of a rush, we got the entry very late, several months after the other teams, but that's the name of the game. We know when the first race is, so we've got to be ready."