Just catching up on a few of the new F1 car launches for this year.

First up is Lotus with its E23 hybrid. There’s a change to a Mercedes Benz power unit for the 2015 season. The team struggled with last year’s car so it’s targeted every area that caused it an issue.

Says Technical Director, Nick Chester:

“We’ve made strong progress in the wind tunnel as well as in areas such as packaging and cooling. The E22 did deliver good figures in the wind tunnel, even if it was difficult to unlock its potential, so we’ve paid more attention to making the characteristics of the car more adaptable.

“In terms of the suspension, we were delivered something of a blow last year when the front-rear interconnected suspension was outlawed mid-season. The E23’s suspension design is specific to the updated regulations so we’re not trying to update a system originally intended to work a different way.

“We learnt a lot in many areas of the car over the course of 2014 so there are many lessons which have been applied. We know we’ve made a big step. We won’t know how our car will fare in relative terms until we’re out in action at a Grand Prix, but we certainly expect to be much more competitive than last year.”