This Monday afternoon Lotus showed off its new 2015 challenger the E23. And straight away the car looks to very neat in the 2015 regulations. Firstly we see that every new car this year will be assessed on its new nose shape due to the new nose tip regulations. Lotus has evolved the 2014-style nose it tested in America to yet again create short run down which is again a narrow nose structure.
This shape is two mandatory cross sections into the narrowest and highest possible shape to allow the maximum airflow around and under the nose to feed the rear diffuser and splitter.
Looking at the top of the car we have these little inlets by the air intake. These will either be oil and engine coolant of to feed each back of the engine its oxygen in the combustion chamber to give the car more power and speed.
The front wing remains very similar to its father the E22. With lots of cascades joining onto its two-part endplate and its signature design ‘the central turning vane’ remains.
The sidepod’s are allot less sponsor cluttered thanks to Williams. But this shows us that there Power Unit packaging is allot neater and smaller creating a smaller sidepod, This will not only help the car aerodynamically but also in cooling thanks to the two neat inlets below the role hoop being implemented to help cool the car. As did the STRO9 had when its air box was removed.
Lastly to the rear wing which doesn’t have the a-symmetrical exhaust outlet also same with the rear wing pylon. This not only creates a better aerodynamic car but easier to design in the process mainly in CFD.
Overall it’s a better car than the Williams FW37 we saw. It’s a very tidy package and should see them in the points regularly It has some neat aero techniques which will help the car throughout the 2015 season.
