Offseason? We don’t need no stinking off season! So it would appear with all the news that has hit the wires the last couple days. Now we learn of a potential spygate 2 involving Force India and the new Lotus team that i snot even prepared a car yet. However, this is where the problem begins.
Swiss press Motorsport Aktuell is reporting that Dr. VJ Malyah is very concerned that the wind tunnel version of the new Lotus strongly resembles the VJM-02. We must be cautioned however that F1 cars are pretty standard these days and it is not hard for one to look like the other. However the boys at FI think it’s enough a problem to make mention of it. The real problem behind this is new Lotus employee Mike Gascoyne. If you remember, Gascoyne used to work for FI and was eventually released and hired by the new Malaysian based squad. This next part is where it gets a little tricky, so let’s walk gently through this “supposed” problem.
It is no secret that Force India is in debt to pretty much any company involved in F1 for one reason or another. One of these companies was an Italian company Aerolab. As the name implies, the company has a wind tunnel where the team used to be able to test aero designs for the cars. That relationship has ended and when it did, the Force India engineers left behind a scale model of their current challenger. Enter Mike Gascoyne who now uses that same building for the aero work on the new Lotus F1 car expected to hit the grid on 2010. The Lotus squad has taken up this same facility where the car resides. If we put the two together, it would appear that Force India is accusing Lotus of copying the model that was left behind. I see no fault in using a product that was left behind by the team. This probably will not pick up traction due to the fact that Force India left the model BEHIND. If you were that concerned, then you should have taken your little toy car with you. There have been no formal charges brought onto Lotus, yet this represents yet more bad news and controversy that is destroying F1. Well done boys!
