Lotus wants to race its double DRS at Spa

Refreshed and rejuvenated following the summer break, Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison is looking forward to the second half of the 2012 season.

How are you feeling after the summer break heading to Spa?

It’s been a slightly odd break as the gap between Hungary and Spa is so long relative to what we’ve had in recent years. Previously you would have stopped at the end of one race, had two weeks off, then been straight back into another. This time there has been a fallow period of a week either side of the shutdown. The team is impatient to be back at the track and racing the E20, but we have certainly welcomed the extra days of manufacturing since Hungary for the new parts we’ve been creating.

What new parts do you have for the car?

Quite a lot of different bits. A big focus has been getting ready for Monza which is immediately after Spa and requires a unique downforce package. It’s only one race but it requires a whole new set of wings and a disproportionate amount of work. We’ve also been focusing on ensuring that we have the capability to run the new device in Spa should we be confident enough to do so.

Talking of ‘The Device’, do you have a name for it?

I rather like ‘The Device’ as it has a sort of Dr Strangelove appeal to it, but most people refer to it as DDRS.

How should Spa suit the E20?

If it’s a dry weekend Spa fits the category of circuit at which we are most confident, so all of us are excited to be going there. If it’s a wet weekend it’s a much more open question; for all teams, not just for us. It frequently rains at Spa, so we have to be prepared for that possibility. We’ve had various wet experiences so far this season, with the inclement weather coming mainly in qualifying. At Silverstone we were okay in wet conditions, but in Germany we struggled to get the wet tyre into its temperature operating window. Should we have the same situation at Spa, the nature of the corners and the loadings on the tyres should be sufficient to generate enough heat in the rubber, so we’re not unduly concerned. We would prefer a dry weekend, but we should be competitive whatever the weather.

How much development is there to come with the E20?

We’ve structured our development of this year’s and next year’s cars differently to the last few seasons to leave us with more than double our traditional post-shutdown development on the current car. This late season freedom was paid for by having conducted a more intense development programme for next year’s car earlier on this year. Hopefully this approach should pay dividends for the development of both cars. The E20 certainly hasn’t fallen behind relative to our opposition, and next year’s car is looking promising at this stage.