[bobibnoxx]

In the case of Lotus I'm personally actually not that concentrated in comparing them to other new teams (although initially it's inevitable), but I'm going to follow the gap between them and established teams to see, if and how is this going to reduce. In Autosport.com Gascoyne has given a good explanation, why their car looks so outdated, especially sidepods. Due to lack of time they had no engine data and data from other suppliers, so they needed to play it safe and design a car they would be sure is reliable and has enough cooling. I'm looking forward to see their car being already visibly much-improved by the time of the Spanish Grand Prix. I hope that by 2011 they can already fight in the midfield and get a few points on merit.

In terms of Virgin CFD is an interesting gamble and so far one could say that they are not embarrasingly off pace, so a full-CFD approach for a struggling backmarker team may be acceptable if they are lacking cash. However, I suspect this factor and lack of funds is going to make their way in reaching the level of established teams more difficult and if they are capable of achieving that one day despite all disadvantages, then hats off! If they can start matching established teams with a full-CFD approach, this may raise some eyebrows from the experienced people in the paddock. But at the moment it may look like a long shot. However, Virgin Racing may have on trump-card in the long run if in the process of implementing cost-cutting measures wind-tunnels would be banned one day!

HRT - I'm not sure about their long-term prospects, which IMO is a bigger concern now than their car. The team might have been saved for now, but do they have the funds and businessplan to keep going for many years to come? So far the saving of the team has looked like a rushed emergency enterprise. Only time can tell, what will the future bring to them.