Category Formula One Predecessor Lotus E21 | Constructor Lotus Successor Lotus E23 Hybrid | |
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Designer(s) Nick Chester (Technical Director) Chassis Composite monocoque structure, designed and built in-house, carrying the Renault V6 as fully stressed member | ||
The Lotus E22 is a Formula One racing car designed by Lotus to compete in the 2014 Formula One season. It was driven by Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, who replaced Kimi Räikkönen after Räikkönen left the team to rejoin Ferrari. The E22 was designed to use Renault's new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engine, the Energy F1-2014. This was the last car of the Enstone-based team which used Renault engines until Renault RS16, before a new one-year deal with Mercedes.
The team was forced to miss the first pre-season test at Jerez de la Frontera, but released computer-rendered images of the car in the week beforehand, showing a distinctive asymmetrical forked nose design.
After disappointing results in the first few races, the car picked up pace when the season came to Europe, with Romain Grosjean qualifying fifth and coming home in eighth position at the Spanish Grand Prix. Lotus nevertheless struggled to earn points throughout the season, with only two more point-scoring finishes at Monaco for Grosjean and in the United States for Maldonado. The team would admit that a fundamental design flaw on the chassis was hugely responsible for the poor performance during the season. Thus, the team stopped development of the car relatively early to concentrate on the E23 chassis after developments on the troublesome car brought no improvements to its performance. Therefore, Lotus ended the season a disappointing eighth in the Constructors' Championship standings, compared to fourth in 2013.
Complete Formula One results
(key)
† — Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed greater than 90% of the race distance.
‡ — Teams and drivers scored double points at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.