The new 'Lotus' Formula One team has successfully fired up it's new Cosworth engines for the first time, despite some "technical delays", and will conduct a two-day shakedown test of their 2010 car at Silverstone later this week.
The team, which will campaign with Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen in the 2010 season, is set to launch it's as-yet unnamed 2010 car at an event in London on Friday, before joining the other teams for the third pre-season test of the winter in Jerez starting on February 17th,
The engine firing took place at the team's base in Norfolk on Saturday, and seemed to be successful despite what the BBC called "some minor technical delays".
The original plan was to shakedown the car after the launch, but the team's technical director Mike Gascoyne confirmed that the plan had changed.
"We'll be shaking the car down on Tuesday, just getting this fire-up is one thing, there's still a lot of parts to go on there," Gascoyne told the BBC.
"We're on the home run now, and that's the first Lotus Cosworth that's fired up for 27 years, so that's a big milestone."
Despite the illustrious nature of the Lotus name though, which last raced in F1 at the end of the 1994 season, Gascoyne claimed that he was not interested in the past.
"They're nice things," he said about the history of the name, "But we're looking to the future not the past, it's all about getting ready for the first test and the first race in Bahrain."
The team principal, Tony Fernandes, wrote on his Twitter feed: "Well done Mike Gasgoyne[sic]. Sure Colin Chapman would have been proud."
The shakedown is thought to be taking place at Silverstone, probably using the same short Stowe layout that the Virgin Racing team used for their own shakedown last week.
The Lotus is one of three new cars to be launched this week, with Force India set to reveal their challenger on Tuesday and the Red Bull RB6 being launched on Wednesday, both in time for the start of the second pre-season test on Wednesday.
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