Lotus unveils the T128

With a significantly more aggressive design, Team Lotus has today unveiled its challenger for the 2011 Formula One season: the T128. With the new single-seater the team is hoping to strengthen its position in the midfield and to fight for the points.

Although the T128 will only make its first public appearance in Valencia’s second testing day, Team Lotus opted to reveal the first pictures of the T128 in a special edition of its Team Lotus Notes online magazine.

Last season, the T127 was conservative car that instead of focusing on performance was developed in order to get the team onto the grid in a very limited timescale. Early in the season Team Lotus stopped the further development of the T127 and started to work on the 2011 car. The new car has moved closer to the modern F1 standards and will be powered by the Renault V8 power and transmission systems from Red Bull.

From the images we can see a more complex wing design, sharply sculpted sidepods, a higher nose and an airbox and roll hoop that might remind the 2010 Mercedes.

"I think that basically this car looks like a frontrunning car in every area," he said. "We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that's very achievable," said team's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne about the T128.

Team Lotus boss, Tony Fernandes said: "The launch of the T128 is a big step forward for Team Lotus and I want to thank the whole team for the amount of hard work that has already gone into T128, and I want to thank Renault and Red Bull Technology for their tremendous support in helping us make this step forward and for being such great team partners."

Further information on the T128 will be published on Wednesday, when the car goes out to the track for the first time in Valencia. During 2011 the T128 will be driven by Adrian Sutil and by the rookie Paul di Resta, DTM champion in 2010 with Mercedes.