Comments on: Lotus under scrutiny for car design

By: royce amatique

royce amatique — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:50:09 +0000

I don’t know what the concorde agreement’s restrictions are but honestly, how ridiculous if you can’t copy visible designs aspects.

F1 is based on copying other teams, uhhhhhh Red Bull’s big ugly sharkfin! Uhhhhhh double diffusers! flippy bunny ears and other horney bits on the nose!!! What are they gonna do, introduce patents?

If they had some bloody freedom to design something bloody different from each other they probably bloody well would. uhhhh no they would probably still copy wouldn’t they.

By: 4kBeast

4kBeast — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:16:02 +0000

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

If these teams that have no history from which to build a car need data – why not reconstruct other constructors vehicles and test them in the wind tunnel to try to glean what you can from others before you are bound by the policy that would evidently make it wrong to do so? Well, it is a quick way to try to combine a bunch of the great lessons that other teams have learned from … but isn’t it also wrong, concorde agreement in effect or not?

By: Arnet

Arnet — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:04:09 +0000

You raise a good point. I confess to being an unabashed Gascoyne admirer, but I truly respect every engineer/designer in F1. I think Gordon Murray is a genius, and I tip my hat to the responsibility that the men and women who put together the cars for the stars have. Still, in this day and age, it is a lot harder today for anyone to come up with the kinds of “solutions” that Murray used to shake out of his brainy cap. No wonder, really, that the cars begin to look like not too distant relatives.

Plus, as I have said before, no designer leaves his brain, skills and memory at the old job. A guy like Gascoyne has had millions of dollars a year to “experiment” with and he has ticked a few boxes there. As cynical as I am about the “New Lotus” team, I am looking forward to see what their budget and skills will produce. They seem to be taking it quite seriously and don’t mind actually showing people that they are in the F1 business, unlike some of the other minnow teams who don’t need to be mentioned.

By: Arnet

Arnet — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:55:46 +0000

I love you Jordan/Minardi fans, even if it is harder to love their current incarnations……

By: SJ Skid

SJ Skid — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:33:36 +0000

Gotcha. I did say it was fishy, you’re right. I do think Gasgoyne “passing the buck” is a bit strange if there isn’t anything there.

We’ll see. Given our other story about Lotus, maybe it and Force India really will be battling next year!