James Allison has thanked his boss, Lotus team principal Eric Boullier, for pushing him to be creative with this year’s E20 car.<\/p>\n
The former Renault team had a troubled 2011 season, with the innovative front-exiting exhausts ultimately scrapped when the field raced ahead with the more obvious Red Bull-style exhaust solution.<\/p>\n
Boullier may, therefore, have been sensible to request a more conventional approach to 2012.<\/p>\n
But the new E20 is once again an adventurous design, and in pre-season testing it was quicker than any rival at both the Barcelona and Jerez circuits.<\/p>\n
“I can only thank my boss,” technical director Allison told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
“He had every reason to demand from us a conservative car, but instead they encouraged us to continue to be innovative.<\/p>\n
“You can get it right that way but there’s also a lot of risk.”<\/p>\n
One major hiccup so far was the chassis suspension flaw, which cost Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean the entire middle Barcelona test.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, the E20 is tipped to be a positive surprise of 2012.<\/p>\n
“Its manufacturing is worlds better than the (2011) R31,” said Allison.\u00a0 “There are fewer seams, gaps, edges.”<\/p>\n
The German magazine report said the secret is under the skin, after Lotus took a meticulous approach to aerodynamics for 2012.<\/p>\n
“Anything that increases air resistance was eliminated systematically,” he explained.<\/p>\n
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