“We are confident our design complies with the FIA legal requirements”

– Nick Chester

The first day of testing is underway in Jerez, and there’s already plenty to talk about on and off track. Here, Lotus Technical Director, Nick Chester, reveals how the E22 is coming along, and exactly what the team is thinking while looking at the other cars as they roll out for the first time this season.

“We have passed all the necessary crash tests and we are very confident that our design complies with all the FIA legal requirements”

So the first day of running in Jerez is taking place, and we’ve seen the majority of the grid unveil their cars – and their interesting front ends – to the world. Just give us an overview of what the team is thinking right now, and how we compare initially to the other teams.

As we can see there are plenty of different solutions out there as we expected there would be with such a radical change of regulations. There appears to be some elegant solutions and others that certainly don’t look as nice! We’re very happy with the direction we have taken and it will be very interesting to see how the cars perform once we get a proper chance to compare them on track.

There seems to be a little speculation in Jerez regarding our nose, is the FIA relaxed about this solution too?

Absolutely, as you know we have passed all the necessary crash tests and we are very confident that our design complies with all the FIA legal requirements – we have just taken an innovative direction, and one that’s different to the other teams. Where there are so many variations in design, there is always bound to be a little talk, but we remain relaxed and focussed on our design and progression.

How close an eye will we be keeping on the other teams in Jerez, and can we actually learn anything from their running?

It’s always interesting to see what solutions the other teams have. Obviously you can’t see under the skin of the cars easily where the majority of the design work takes place, but it’s always interesting to see the various aero packaging on the other cars. We’ll look at the different bodywork options they’re running and there’s always a few things to pick up on what they are pursuing.

How is the E22 coming along development wise? We’ve issued a couple of CGI images recently, which showcase the shape and new colours, but how is our progress and are we looking good for Bahrain?

Yes, the car’s coming together pretty well now. The build is well advanced and we think we’ll be in good shape for Bahrain come the next test.