2010 F1 Season Review Part 10- Legendary Lotus Flies Home to Roost | Thebigtip

The 2010 Formula One season was one of the most exciting to date, with a heady mixture of new teams, new regs and a four-way title battle to keep even the least enthusiastic petrol-head glued to their telly screen. In my extensive season review, I'll be taking you through each of the 12 teams' performances, who was hot and who most certainly was not and I'll be giving my raw and unsolicited opinion on whether each team deserved their final finishing place. A comeback king now, in the revised and not-so-speedy shape of Lotus-Cosworth...

Drivers: Jarno Trulli / Heikki Kovalainen

Team principal: Tony Fernandes

Car spec: T127

Engine: Cosworth

It's not very flattering being labelled 'the best of the new teams' when neither you nor your closest rivals actually scored any world championship points. But everybody has to start somewhere. And unless your brand spanking new outfit consists of Adrian Newey as chief designer, Ross Brawn as technical director, and Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel, you're hardly likely to hit the tarmac challenging straight away for results. 

2010 was more of a development process for Lotus, the prestigious name returning to F1 following a 16-year absence. This time it was under part-British, part-Malaysian ownership, and it was doubtful they'd even get started in the first place. Accepted pretty late on into the off-season following BMW's departure, it was a (highly-cliched) race against time to develop a car worthy of gracing the F1 fraternity. 

The decision to sign two former race winners in Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli could be viewed as a commendable effort for the team. But for the drivers themselves, long accustomed to piloting much more capable machinery, 2010 must have been something of a real niggling frustration. No one wants to be stuck trawling around at the back, especially not when they used to drive for a world-beating team; but sometimes we have to make the best with the equipment we're given. And at least they can look to the bright side - they weren't consigned to that god-awful Hispania Racing outfit week in week out. 

Unlike some of the other new (and returning; and exisiting) teams, Lotus managed to reach the chequered flag in Bahrain with both cars still intact. The positions may have only been 15th and 17th, but a finish is a finish; and to a developing minnow every result is vital. All in all, 11 retirements and two DNS' wasn't a bad attempt by the newcomers, and they were without doubt the class of their six-car field at the rear. Kovalainen's only misdemeanour (and it's fervently debatable whether or not it was an oops on the part of the Lotus driver) came in Valencia, when Mark Webber's Red Bull suddenly flew over the top of him and landed in a sorry heap with a swearing Australian blaming the Finn for not moving out of his way.  

The two cars were actually racing for position, Webber finding himself down among the backmarkers following a premature pitstop. Kovalainen (and Lotus) defended his refusal to move aside for the faster car, stating an absolute right to jostle for position with whosoever happened to be around him. And good on him too - just because your car's a bit naff but there's a faster one behind you, doesn't mean you've got to lie down and be trampled on!

It didn't get much better than 12th and 13th in Japan for Kovalainen and Trulli respectively. The Italian, a veteran of 14 Formula One seasons, was severely disgruntled with the T127 set-up. He proved the better qualifier, but given his knack for putting immense power down over a single lap this hardly came as surprising news. A real shame it stopped there for Trulli, as mechanical niggles struck almost every weekend without fail, and seven retirements to his team mate's four was not really how he imagined summing up his season.

Both drivers are retained for 2011, and Trulli hinted at points during 2010 that the future was where everyone involved with the Lotus team should ultimately be looking. Renault power and Red Bull transmission gear await, both of which hint at more promising times to come. The only negative gnawing away at the resident green machine is the ongoing battle over naming rights. Team Lotus, Lotus Racing, Lotus Just Shut Up And Get On With It...seriously, what is in a name? Am I missing something here? Will the moniker 'Team Lotus' make them perform any better on track, just because it's legendary? I think not...

Trulli finished: 21th

Kovalainen finished: 20th

Bev's verdict: Lotus were always going to be the class of the underdogs' field, given that Virgin couldn't even get the dimensions of their fuel tank right and Hispania truly were awful. Will we see better things of Lotus in 2011? Can pigs fly? Who knows?

Images courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/