The Lotus Exodus: The End of an Era?

Photo Credit: Marshall Pruett/SPEED.com

De Silvestro will have less to worry about in 2013
Photo Credit: David Land/Overdrive Blog

When Simona De Silvestro's Lotus expired at the 16 lap mark in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and with SPEED's Marshall Pruett reporting that Lotus is exiting the series it may well have been the last time we ever see a small manufacturer in IndyCar racing.

Lotus's Judd built twin-turbo V6 was off the pace from the first green flag in St. Petersburg, where five Lotus powered entries took the grid, the fastest Alex Tagliani's Bryan Herta Autosport in 17th.

Despite the poor pace there was a glimmer of hope for the Lotus powered teams.

Sebastian Bourdais, who started stone-dead last in 26th, worked his way through the field and at one point was running third, staying in sight of the Chevrolet of Helio Castroneves and the Honda of Scott Dixon. The hopes of a podium for the underdog Lotus/Judd were dashed when an electrical issue sidelined Bourdais with 27 laps to go.

Hopes were high again in Birmingham, Alabama at the Barber Motorsports Park where once again Bourdais was the class of the Lotus field matching Tagliani's St. Pete qualifying performance of 17th and avoided any issues to finish a promising 9th. This, unfortunately, would be the high point of the season for Lotus. 


The slowest car to qualify at Indy since 1997
Photo Credit: David Land/Overdrive Blog

By Indianapolis, four of the five full time Lotus teams had defected to either Honda or Chevy and the two remaining Lotus powered cars of HVM's De Silvestro and Indy 500 only entry Fan Force United's Jean Alesi were at the bottom of the time sheets all month long.

After qualifying 32nd and 33rd respectively both Lotus cars were blackflagged at lap 10 for being too slow.

HVM continued to carry the Lotus flag through the rest of the season alone but against the might of Honda and Chevy could not break out of the top 20.

In 2013 HVM, De Silvestro, and Lotus will part ways. De Silvestro will be driving for KV Racing Technologies alongside Tony Kanaan with Chevy power and HVM has defected from the IZOD IndyCar Series completely and next year will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Le Mans sportscars in the LMP2 division and possibly in the American Le Mans Series in the LMPC category. Lotus of course is out of the series completely.

While many may rejoice in the fact that fan-favorite Simona De Silvestro will no longer be 20mph off the pace with no shot at victory, I feel a bit of sadness for what we have lost.

33 DW-12's Inspired or Boring
Photo Credit: David Land/Overdrive Blog

50 percent of my enjoyment of the sport of auto racing comes from the skill level of the drivers and the close and exciting racing they can produce, the other 50 percent comes from enjoying the sights and sounds of the race cars, different looking and sounding race cars.

I certainly feel any race is more engaging when I can not only enjoy the racing, but also enjoy watching the battle of the best and brightest engineers and designers eek out tenths of a second with a new aero package or trick turbocharger. That has been lost in IndyCars for the better part of 20 years.

Long gone are the days of 'run what ya brung' when IndyCars were powered by anything from an airplane turbine, to an engine that had once served in a school bus. This era of cost containment and an apparent fear of someone building a better mousetrap has prevented any of that from happening.

Don't get me wrong, the DW-12 is a cool looking racecar but 33 of them all powered by similar V6 engines that sound like vacuum cleaners, is rather uninspiring.

More stuff like the Nissan Delta Wing please!
Photo Credit: John Dagys/SPEED.com

That is why the loss of Lotus is sad to me, it is one step closer back to where we were in 2008-2011, one chassis, one engine, dull.

I long for the days of when you could tell which car was crossing the yard of bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just by the sound of the engine. Not only that, I want to see the next generation of Smokey Yunick's, Dan Gurney's, or Jim Hall's build IndyCars that may or may not look like what we perceive to be a conventional IndyCar, kind of like Nissan's Delta Wing that races in the ALMS.

Unless there is a major shift in the rules or the way of approaching IndyCar racing, Lotus's failed engine program may finally be the last in a dying breed of hopeful manufacturers trying to break into IndyCar racing.