Lotus Racing:
Engine: 9th
Gearbox: 7th
Brakes: 7th
Front Wing: 10th
Suspension: 9th
Rear Wing: 10th
Overall: 10th
The design facility has now officially closed till the preseason and we dropped the factory work on the designated
Jeremy Woodford front wing to get the new engine, suspension and rear wing buffed for 2017...
Fun fact, if we put all the illegal 2017 parts in the car, it would still be the slowest in 2016 as we are still below average in every department... we need a bigger factory to get all that performance out of those parts...
Sponsors:
Fixed Payment Sponsors:
Bebelitas(5/8 races) $2.75M upfront
Hyper Tech(3/14 races) $500k upfront, $500k per race
Cortés Tyre Co(2/15) $500k upfront, $400k per race
Race Bonus Sponsors:
Golden Tiger Bank(4/7) $900k upfront, $200k bonus pool for 13th or above
Northern Harbour(4/6) $1.25M upfront, $880k bonus pool for 2nd or above
Vamoose(4/6) $1.5M upfront, $1.2M bonus pool for 3rd or above
The Track:
The home of the Brazilian GP, the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, will be the scene of a very interesting race this weekend, for us and the rest of the teams. The 17 corner track demands a lot from engines, the suspension and needs a lot of rear wing performance, and we are already running the more twisty version.
Tyre wear is not that big, so running a sensible strategy on soft tyres would be possible... if it were not for the rain in the forecast. This could throw a wrench into a lot of strategies, and could give us a shot at getting a good grid slot AND capitalizing in the race.
Rumors, Rumors, Rumors
Rumor has it,
Panther's
Zoe Sharp wants out. The 27-year old is looking for a new drive despite her having another year on the contract. She has to compete with a number of free agent drivers this offseason though...
And the free agent bonanza at the end of the season could be fierce.
Chiaki Hashimoto, 19-year old star touring car driver, may want to join the WMC and
Rick de Graaf,
Wolfgang Schmidt,
Lucía Flores,
Harry Chapman,
Niilo Saarinen and
Aki Lipponen headline the drivers on expiring contracts... Pre-contracts are forbidden in the WMC, so expect a ton of moves after the final race.
The
Rossini team got some additional acceleration out of their gearbox, an upgrade that should translate well into 2017, via technical director Joe Kelly.
Trying to get a little bit more out of the car,
Panther brought a new suspension to Brazil that somehow resembles the
Steinmann one... just that it works better somehow.