First view of new Lotus challenger

Beautiful! That was my first thought upon seeing the new Lotus Formula One car. The E21 even has a bit of sex appeal to its design features. Now the question is will it have the needed speed to contest for the 2013 championship.

On their live YouTube live launch, the Lotus F1 team is the first of the teams to launch their car. Team Principal Eric Boullier spoke about how the team will “carry the momentum from 2012” as they aim to keep their “expectations as good if not better than 2012 – we plan to fight for the championship.”

Raikkonen and Grosjean unveil Lotus E21

Under the direction of James Allison, technical director, the work for the E21 started early. He alluded to their plan to be the first Formula 1 team to launch in order "to catch the attention of the media and get people excited about it.” Indeed they did reach that goal.

However the goal is the world championship, and when asked for details about the new car, Allison smiled and stated, “the devil is in the detail… and that adds up for performance.”

The Lotus E21 was shown to the online audience along with the special guests at the Lotus headquarters in Enstone by drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

Raikkonen does not think the cream at the top will change much – he was third in 2012 points and is a former champion – but he did comment, “Should be easier as I know the people better now and they know me.” It was not clear if he meant the entire Lotus staff or the drivers he races against.

Grosjean’s desire is to be “more consistent this year” which after the crashes of 2012, that is not a surprise.