Wind tunnel plans may take two years - Gascoyne

It will be some time before Team Lotus has its own wind tunnel up and running, technical boss Mike Gascoyne has admitted.

Late in 2010, the Tony Fernandes-led outfit announced it would soon build a tunnel at its Hingham headquarters.

But when asked if those plans would be realised during the course of next year, Gascoyne told paultan.org: "No, ’soon’ is 18 months to two years time and we’re in the planning stages."

He said the history of teams like Red Bull and Renault show that success is rarely instant in F1.

"Even with an established team (Benetton/Renault) that won the world championship, it took five years to turn it around into a winning team.

"We’re developing everywhere," explained Gascoyne. "We’ve made a good start, but it’s very much the first step along the road."

He denied that the team’s wind tunnel in the UK means the plan to set up a headquarters in Malaysia has been scrapped.

"I still think that we want to set something up in Kuala Lumpur, possibly in Sepang," said the Briton.