Mike Gascoyne
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DYNAMIC SPIRITVIBRANT POTENTIAL INCREDIBLE ENERGETIC FAMILY HEROIC AWESOME RACERSRESOLUTE PEDIGREE AGILE PULSATING INSPIREDBRAVE PROGRESSIVESTEADFASTPASSION SPORTING FOCUS INNOVATIVEFRESH LEGENDARYUNDERDOGS 2011 LAUNCH EDITION TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES WELCOME BACK Welcome and thank you. We decided to show the first pictures of our 2011 challenger in Team Lotus Notes as it is you the fans, who truly power us on and motivate our steps forward. I hope you enjoy the first taste of our beautiful green and yellow car, and I hope you enjoy reading this; an honest and open insight, written from the heart of the team. When I was asked to pick one word to describe Team Lotus, a million flooded into my mind! But eventually I had to come back to where it all started for me – dreams. Team Lotus is about dreams, and those dreams becoming reality. I remember when I was a boy, running a hole in the carpet with my model Lotus Formula One™ car. I had dreams then, I still do, but what I hope to inspire is the belief that if you dare to dream, you can achieve great things. Colin Chapman created the last dynasty and it’s one that inspires me and all my team to do more, think more, be more every day. But now it is time for us to create our own legend. Thank you for sharing this spirit of adventure with us, for being a part of our team, for stepping onto the rollercoaster we’re about to ride and daring to dream. Tony Fernandes ‘ THE GOOD ALWAYS WIN.’ TONY FERNANDES WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK ‘ THIS YEAR’S CAR IS A MUCH MORE CONTEMPORARY DESIGN. THE CAR REALLY WILL BE A MIDFIELD RUNNER. IT’S A MODERN F1™ CAR. I’M VERY CONFIDENT IT IS A BIG STEP UP AND IT’S THE START OF A PROCESS THAT TAKES TEAM LOTUS BACK TO THE FRONT OF THE GRID.’ MIKE GASCOYNE WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK ‘ THE LAST SIX WEEKS HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC FOR ME, DOING BASIC TRAINING INITIALLY AND NOW SHIFTING UP A GEAR TO GET THE PERFORMANCE LEVELS RIGHT. IT’S BEEN A GREAT WINTER AND I THINK I’M THE BEST PREPARED I’VE EVER BEEN.’ HEIKKI KOVALAINEN ‘ SITTING ON THE GRID IN BAHRAIN THIS YEAR WILL FEEL VERY DIFFERENT – A DIFFERENT TENSION. LAST YEAR WE WERE JUST AIMING TO FINISH THE RACE. THIS YEAR WE’LL BE AIMING TO FINISH IN THE POINTS. BUT WITH THE PACKAGE WE HAVE, THAT SHOULD BE ACHIEVABLE.’ JARNO TRULLI TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES INVASION OF THE NEWS POD(CAST) PEOPLE Two of our brand new favourite friends dropped by to award us the A.D.U.T.A. trophy last week. Kevin and Terry IN THE HOT SEAT of the comic ‘Another F1™ Podcast’ Both Heikki and Jarno (pictured presented us with their Underdog right and below) came to the factory Award for being best of the new teams recently for a seat fitting for the all- in 2010. They brought us a fantastic new Team Lotus challenger. They trophy and a hand-crafted Team Lotus first popped by just before Christmas Formula One™ car (below). We showed and the pair arrived again last week Marianne, our Head of Aero, and she to work through the final details. The said that although she appreciated the reason the drivers have to go through eff ort, the front wing in particular wasn’t this is due to the chassis changing, quite what we’re looking for. We were and not on account of how many chuff ed with the trophy, though, and Christmas puddings they’ve had! awarded it to Heikki (who won A.D.U.T.A Both drivers were impressed with the Driver of the Year). atmosphere in the factory and the You can listen to the podcast online progress of the car, and were eager to for free, plus hear about their get back on track. Keep an eye out for adventures at the Team Lotus HQ. TLTV for our latest videos of them. Simply go to iTunes and download it now. CLOGGING AWAY Team Lotus’ Marketing and NEAT TWEET #1 Communications department is happy to welcome a new graphic @tonyfernandes “Hi Tony, car looks designer to the fold, Christian Clogger. No stranger to Formula One™, Christian’s brother Liam was, until very, very good, I hope it’s as quick as it recently, Press Off icer for AirAsia’s former partner Williams F1™. Having to looks, certainly a very big step forward. balance a new baby boy at home and redesign pretty much everything here New we need to wait for track results means it’s been a baptism of fire for Christian but they do say it’s fastest but I’m confident. From Jarno.” moving sport in the world so… WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES THE THINK TANK Something you don’t see in any other Formula One™ factory is the Chief Technical Off icer pulling a joke on his staff . As we expand, one of the WOOF! factory’s front-of-house rooms has been re-developed and has been aff ectionately named ‘The Aquarium’... “Hey Max, what have you It’s right by reception, so it’s become been up to over the winter? compulsory to make fish faces through the window to those inside, “Hi Sam. You know, the usual: hence Mike Gascoyne’s impromptu getting clipped, sleeping a bit of interior design (below). lot, eating things I shouldn’t, wrecking some furniture and debating the merits of the movable rear wing and calculating whether the delta is suff icient to make overtaking in Formula One™ a knife-edge possibility or the motor racing equivalent of the bus you’re not waiting for.” – “What?” “They come along every two minutes.” “Sounds complicated.” “It is Sam. But not as tricky as driving a Formula One™ car – HEIKKI SQUASHED there’s so much for the driver to Formula One™ drivers are finely tuned machines, supreme athletes contend with in the cockpit this whose expert reflexes give them year, it would make you dizzy.” an advantage over us mere mortals, “If you’re a certain seven-time right? Think again. world champion, I think it Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes recently challenged Heikki already has” Kovalainen to a gentle game of “Hmmm... simulated sickness. squash, a contest the ace driver Tricky one. How you can tell reckoned he’d have no problem winning. How wrong he was… if it’s even real…” “It didn’t go very well for me,” Heikki lamented after being run off court by his opponent. “I lost 3-0 to him and only managed to win one point! In the SIGNS OF THE TIMES end, I think it was 9-1, 5-0, 5-0. But I’d One of the biggest changes never played the game before! over the winter season was NEAT TWEET #2 “I figured I’d just get Tony running. the removal of our old sign I thought ‘Well, I’m fitter than Tony, and the beautiful new Team so if I just get him out of breath then Lotus signage going up. We’re @tonyfernandes “RT @H_Kovalainen: no problem’. But it wasn’t so easy. immensely proud of our Basically, I had no chance! He was fantastic headquarters and Things looking great at Lotus, big completely controlling the game putting up the Team Lotus sign and I didn’t know what to do.” was the next big step in our Of course, everyone knows that F1™ rapid development. Over the thanks to Mike and the shareholders, drivers are notoriously bad losers, and next few months (and years!) Heikki’s already looking for revenge. there will be a lot of updates and of course all the members of the at our humble Hingham home “I’ll definitely practice a bit more,” and we’ll keep you posted team who are working very hard!” he said. “I’ll find a coach and I’ll be about them all! looking for a re-match.” WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES THIS YEAR’S MODEL It’s been a while in the making and it’s very diff erent from last year’s car: ladies and gentlemen, this is the the new Team Lotus challenger, and here’s how it came about… WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK WWW.TEAMLOTUS.CO.UK TEAM LOTUS NOTES TEAM LOTUS NOTES Mike Gascyone (Chief Technical Off icer): With last year’s car and especially the first half of the season it was just an exercise in survival, whereas from the middle of last year it was about building the team up – that’s when we started working on this car. Marianne Hinson (Head of Aerodynamics): In aerodynamics, we’ll start thinking about a new car before any of the other departments, and we started looking at this car around Spring last year. We begin by sitting down with the new regulations because there’s almost always something new. Normally, you’d take the previous year’s car as a basis, talk about what engine and gearbox will be used and roughly what will need to be packaged inside the car, then move on to where the aerodynamic regulations have changed the most. Lewis Butler (Chief Designer): In my role, I started looking at this car around June last year while I was working on iterations of the 2010 car.