Video: Lotus chase 2 second gain from new Barcelona package

Among the teams bringing updates to Barcelona the ones likely to make the biggest gain are the new teams - because they are coming from the furthest back.

In the case of Lotus their entry for 2010 was only accepted in September last year and they had one month to finalise the design before going into production, in order to make the pre-season tests.

They put out a fairly conservative car for the opening races, always aiming at a major upgrade package for Barcelona. And technical director Mike Gascoyne says that a gain of around 1.5 to 2 seconds per lap is what the simulations predict for their new package. This should mean that if they are able to get ahead of any of the established cars in the race they will be able to race them, rather than be repassed straight away.

Central to the new package is a sleek new front wing and in this video, which I shot last week at Lotus HQ in Norfolk, Gascoyne explains the process of designing, modelling and then building such this important new part.

He even gives JA on F1 readers a special talk-through of the new wing as it sits in the jig waiting to be bonded.