Welcome back! (Sort Of...)

Look sort of familiar? Well it should do - the Lotus colour scheme is back in F1 after a 16 year gap. They are officially Lotus too - if they were to miraculously win a race, it would count as another one for the Lotus records book. All this seems a little weird, when you consider that it's mostly owned by a Malaysian Businessman and backed by the Proton car company.

They certainly have a big bit of history to live up to, but are wisely only looking toi finish races this year. That might still be a bit optimistic, seeing as Rottweiler Mike Gasgoyne only got the ball rolling 5 months ago. Still, he's worked something near to miracles with the performance of several other teams... usually just before his attitude finally gets too much for them and he was given his P45. Prospects? Scrapping with Virgin at the back, although they have a couple of experience drivers who have both won races...

Jarno Trulli is most famous for losing his rag last season and waving his arms around like a windmill on a breezy day at a somewhat bemused Sutil, and creating that curious situation dubbed "The Trulli Train" whereby his pace tailed off but no-one could get past him. Still, he's a good driver and a great qualifier, so might be able to haul the car up the grid a bit. Expect extra carriages on the train this year though.

Heikki (Crikey!) Kovaleinen kind of disappeared at McLaren. Occasionally great, he mostly did a Heidfeld, and just vanished compared to his star team-mate. He needs to rebuild his reputation, but a new team at the back of the grid? Wow. He's going to need to shine VERY brightly to get noticed.

Nice to see a car in those colours again, isn't it?

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Welcome to Costa del Barrow

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