Lotus has decided to follow the route of racing with coandă-style exhausts on-board the cars of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean in Korea. This follows a back-to-back comparison between the new concept and the previous version on Friday.
Across the opening pair of practice sessions, Finn Räikkönen – who could be propelled back into the title chase, if the idea is effective enough – trialled the coandă version which directs exhaust exit gases upwards, then takes advantage of airflow’s tendency to find the nearest surface which happens to be the rear diffuser.
Following their respective runs on the Super Soft tyre, Räikkönen ended the day inside the top ten and just over a tenth of a second up on his French team-mate.
“We are reasonably happy with the way it’s working, so I think so,” Technical Director James Allison said when asked to confirm if the new exhausts would stay put for the rest of the weekend. “The coandă solution is worth a bit more than the power-maximising solution (other exhaust), but you must be confident that it will deliver when it comes to the downforce loss.”
After practice in Japan last week, the Enstone-based team decided to can its ‘Double DRS’ idea for the time being following great difficulties in calibrating the rear wing device. It will be run again at the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi next month.
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Kimi Räikkönen
James Allison
Romain Grosjean
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:38.832 | 33 |
| 2. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:38.864 | 33 |
| 3. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:39.160 | 28 |
| 4. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:39.219 | 29 |
| 5. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:39.330 | 31 |
| 6. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:39.422 | 30 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:39.584 | 36 |
| 8. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:39.717 | 25 |
| 9. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 01:39.739 | 33 |
| 10. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:39.839 | 26 |
| Full results | ||||
| Romain Grosjean | |||
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| More Romain Grosjean photos | |||
| James Allison | |||
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| More James Allison photos | |||
| Kimi Räikkönen | |||
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| More Kimi Räikkönen photos | |||
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