Lotus con caja Red Bull y motor Renault en 2011

Lotus está que tira la casa por la ventana y ha anunciado que usará las cajas de cambios y los sistemas hidráulicos de Red Bull desde la temporada 2011. Se espera que el equipo, que se llamará Team Lotus la próxima temporada, anuncie también próximamente un acuerdo con Renault como suministrador de motores en 2011.

Lotus ha expresado sus dudas respecto a su caja de cambios y sistemas hidráulicos Xtrac a lo largo de su temporada de debut este año, y ya ha concluido su contrato de motores con Cosworth.

Es la primera vez que Red Bull suministra una caja de cambios a un equipo cliente. "El hecho de que Red Bull Technology haya elegido ser un suministrador para otro equipo a pesar de su corta historia demuestra lo mucho que hemos conseguido desde nuestra primera temporada", explicó el jefe de equipo de Red Bull, Christian Horner.

Estas noticias suponen que Lotus y Red Bull usarán el mismo motor/caja de cambios/paquete hidráulico en Fórmula 1.

A continuación el comunicado de prensa de Lotus con el anuncio:

LOTUS RACING ANNOUNCES RED BULL TECHNOLOGY GEARBOX AND HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS PARTNERSHIP

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5th October 2010

Lotus Racing has today announced that the Anglo-Malaysian squad has agreed a deal with Red Bull Technology for the supply of gearboxes and hydraulic systems from the 2011 season and beyond. The announcement marks the next critical building block in the process of stepping up the team’s challenge for honours in the FIA Formula One™ World Championship and is a major statement of intent about their future aspirations.

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer: “The announcement that we have reached a multi-year agreement with Red Bull Technology for the supply of our gearboxes and hydraulics from 2011 is obviously a massive step forward for us, both in engineering terms, and as an expression of our ambitions for next year and for future Championships. The gearbox / hydraulics package obviously plays a critical role in the performance of the car, not just on track but in design and packaging terms, and this deal gives our design and aero teams a very exciting platform to work with. The removal of the double diffusers in 2011 will allow the whole grid to tighten up the rear bodywork and mechanical structures around the gearbox, and this supply deal will allow us to capitalise on that with our 2011 car. Exciting times lie ahead!”

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Team Principal added his thoughts: “We are very pleased about Lotus Racing’s decision to use Red Bull Technology gearboxes and hydraulic systems from 2011. The fact that Red Bull Technology has been chosen to be a supplier to another team despite its short history demonstrates how much we have achieved since our first season. We very much look forward to working with Lotus Racing from 2011 onwards.”

Tony Fernandes, Lotus Racing Team Principal: “Din, Nasa, the whole team and I are absolutely delighted to be able to announce our gearbox and hydraulics partnership with Red Bull Technology. It is a real statement of our intention to challenge for Formula One™ honours as soon as we can that we have reached this agreement and we are very excited about integrating the package into our 2011 car. I think people in and out of the sport are going to be following our progress even more closely now we have taken this incredibly important and ambitious step, and it makes next year even more exciting. The Lotus Racing dream grows bigger every day!”