Lotus Prove Max and Bernie Right.

I was completely thrown yesterday when Lotus didn't launch their new car until late afternoon; I was expecting a nice early morning launch so that I could pass judgement at lunch. Instead, the Lotus launch was bigger than that of Red Bull, Renault and Williams - not what you would expect from the new boys.

This has been an incredible journey for Lotus; they were the last of the new teams to be confirmed and in the 5 months since they have put together probably the best technical staff of those teams. Mike Gascoyne comes with experience from Renault and Toyota and knows how to make a team tick - he will ensure that the team doesn't make any rash decisions and he was integral in bringing Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to the team (both winners still with something to prove).

The car itself does have some similarities with the Toyota of last year; in particularly around the front nose/wing area. However, if looks are a judgement of how well this car is going to go then it maybe seems to lack the aggression and ambition of the VR-01 (the car from Virgin who Lotus expects to be racing closely through most of the year).

The T127 looks a bit boxy in the sidepod area; in fact it looks a bit boxy full stop. There are none of the sleek, sexy, computer generated lines of the Virgin car but on the plus side - a lot of experience has gone into the car. Proper, old school engineering - keep it simple; make logical decisions. This can be seen from the front wing; it is developed where the Virgin's really isn't. I can see this car being easier to develop than a lot of the other newbies and I also see it working better than most; I expect none of the teething troubles the Virgin is having in its first test days.

This team, more than any of the other new teams is the embodiment of Bernie's (and Max's) master plan. A plan that they obviously put into action when Honda pulled out over a year ago. It was a simple idea; make F1 accessible to other teams (even if it means that 2010 could be somewhat a three tier championship) so that in the future, when the world is in the boom of the cycle again, there is still F1 on TV rather than the ghost of a championship that had died in between booms. 

I see this car being a steady challenger; taking opportunities and maybe making good progress over the course of the year - Trulli and Kovalainen will help with this. In the Virgin Vs Lotus battle? The looks went to Virgin but I just think that Lotus have the more functional car.

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In yesterday's 3rd testing day from Jerez there was very little running. Rain caused havoc and most of the teams chose not to run too much. Jamie Alguersuari ended the day on top of the time-sheets but the competitive times were set within the first hour (hence a lot of people had only done installation laps).   

My driver of the day was Rubens Barrichello for having the sheer determination to complete over 100 trecherous laps.

1. J. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso STR5  1:19.919  76 laps

2. P. de la Rosa  Sauber C29   1:20.736  58 laps
3. A. Sutil  Force India VJM-03  1:21.428  48 laps

4. F. Massa  Ferrari F10 1:21.603  72 laps

5. S. Vettel  Red Bull Racing RB6  1:21.783  59 laps

6. V. Petrov  Renault R30  1:22.000  68 laps

7. N. Rosberg  Mercedes GP W01  1:22.820  53 laps

8. R. Barrichello  Williams FW32  1:23.217  120 laps

9. L. Hamilton  McLaren MP4-25  1:23.985  68 laps

10. L. Di Grassi  Virgin Racing VR-01  1:37.107  8 laps