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Lotus pushing to debut 'double DRS' at Spa

Published on 07 Aug 2012 09:58
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By: Rob Veenstra

Technical boss James Allison has confirmed speculation Lotus intends to debut its so-called 'double DRS' system in Belgium next month. On British broadcaster Sky's 'F1 Show', television pundit Ted Kravitz explained that - unlike Mercedes' pioneering device - the Lotus version is in fact not attached to the rear wing DRS.

He said Lotus actually calls it the "F-duct". "(In a race) you can only use DRS at one point on the circuit, where they'll have this straightline speed boost at pretty much any point over 150mph," said Kravitz. That will be a big advantage on the long straights and sweeping curves at fabled Spa-Francorchamps. "And they (Lotus) say it's about 4 or 5 kilometres per hour (benefit) -- that's a huge advantage," said former Toyota driver and pundit Allan McNish.

Lotus has tested it on Kimi Raikkonen's black and gold E20 during Friday practice at the most recent Hockenheim and Hungary events. And amid suggestions the entire concept will be banned by the FIA for 2013, technical boss James Allison believes it is still worth the investment and effort now.

"(Even) If it goes away next year it's still something we think is worthwhile putting our effort into," he said. "We hope to have it ready to deploy at Spa," Allison added, insisting it will require a lot of effort to have both cars ready to race the system in Belgium. It's a reasonable amount of time on the calendar but in working terms not very long at all because of the shutdown," he said. (GMM)

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