back to article El Reg takes a spin round Team Lotus's F1 factory

Team Lotus started out with four people in late 2009, and has grown to 200 people and two Formula One cars today. It only got a guaranteed place on the starting grid in December 2009 - and then had to create a team, a car and an infrastructure in four months. Sorting out a normal office network and backup systems in that time …

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  1. NoneSuch Silver badge

    Driver?

    All they need now is a driver. Wonder if Ben Collins is available between court dates?

    1. Cosmo

      @NoneSuch

      I believe Ben Collins is back to sports cars this year - driving for RML in the Le Mans Series

    2. CmdrX3
      Happy

      Why would he go to F1

      No point, he would spend the entire race at the back of the grid. It's the only place he could stick the knife in from ;-)

  2. Jamie Kitson

    Brilliant Photos

    Were you not supposed to be taking photos and had to use a camera-phone and hide it under your jacket?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How do you create an F1 team from nothing in three months?

    I was about to say, "You buy the Renault F1 team", then I released it was the other Lotus...

    Will be 'interesting' if we end up with 2 Lotus teams on the grid this year, especially if they both decide to use the black and gold paint scheme! Tora Rosso and Red Bull is bad enough as it is.

    1. nation of stupid

      two lotuses?

      There's only one Lotus in F1, that's team Lotus and they will be running in green and yellow like this year.

      The team Group Lotus are sponsoring is called Renault, and will be listed officially as Renault GP in the same way McLarens cars are called McLarens and not Vodafones.

  4. Ol'Peculier
    Happy

    Hmmm...

    Three of my main things in life, technology, photography and F1. Throw in a couple of Air Asia cabin lasses and this is my idea of heaven*

    * Even if it is in Norfolk...

  5. RichyS

    CFD

    Actually, Virgin are the only team exclusively using CFD rather than a combination of wind tunnel and CFD.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A lot of effort

    And they're still not even the best team called Lotus in Formula One.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    El Reg has gone down in my estimation...

    An article of fluff... fluff obviously sponsored by Dell...

    We get that the trip was sponsored by them but lines like

    "Bill Peters, head of IT for Team Lotus, explained why he chose Dell."

    "Lotus tech provider Dell. The direct giant sorted out all the usual office infrastructure along with a high-performance cluster for design work and a datacentre "

    ... i mean really?!

    Since when did this become a marketing hub rather than a news site?

    Paris - an article on her sponsored by Dell maybe?

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      FAIL

      Oh grow up...

      So El Reg praised Dell a bit - big deal! I certainly think Dell deserve a bit of praise for once - they did get an F1 team off a piece of paper and on to the track in 3 months! If that doesnt deserve a bit of praise then i dont know what does!

      1. tardigrade

        Yeah but AC does have a point.

        Of the journalists there I would have expected El Reg to have asked a lot more IT questions.

        OK the CFD runs on Linux but what flavour of Linux?

        What OS runs on the laptops in the pratt perch?

        How does the data get back to Norfolk, in the back of a lorry or via satellite broadband?

        What coms kit is used?

        The virtual servers used, are they in the cloud, if so where, Amazon or with Dell?

        Do Dell supply a BOFH to the team?

        etc, etc, etc.

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    1. Eeep !

      What are "3rd line AD skills" ?

      Seriously, have no idea, are they some kind of teaching control rating ?

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    4. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re:IT Job

      Are you applying for the jobs going in Glasgow.Back in November when they had interviews for 15 tech roles available. Over 500 applied only 98 made it to the first interview and out of them only 20 were asked back in for a 2nd interview. About 12 guys got passed the 2nd interview and started training in end of Nov/start of Dec.Those guys have only finished training and will start taking support calls in Feb. Good luck mate and all the best in your application. they offered you 18K?

      I thought they were offering starting salary of 16 and a half K?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        RE: IT Job

        No mate, It was team HQ in Hingham, Norfolk...

  9. JDX Gold badge

    F1 cars crash disk drives?

    Maybe they could use some form of shielding. Reminds me of TheDailyWTF with the car propped up by servers.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately they are Lotus only in name and not for long

    The 2010 "Team Lotus" who may be "Team Gone" in 2011 with the legal ranglings over the Lotus name. Lotus F1 is pretty much a dead end for a driver's career. They are extremely under funded, naive, over-confident, in denial and lack good management. Oh yeah, and their cars are uncompetitive. Other than that they really belong in GP2 not F1. I expect them to be gone before the 2011 season is over.

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      FAIL

      Please go away Troll

      You have no idea about F1 quite obviously, so please leave.

      Lotus are quite well funded and have the backing of 3 billionaires (firstly among them Air Asia X founder Tony Fernandes and Air Asia X is going from strength to strength so his money is not at risk).

      The fight with Lotus is actually a fight with Proton who own Lotus Cars, however Team Lotus have the rights to the Formula 1 Team Lotus as bought from Mr Chapman grandson of the founder of Team Lotus F1. The legal wrangling is because whilst Team Lotus and Proton had a deal for them to race under the Lotus name, when the new chairman of Proton group came to power he cancelled the deal (illegally) and tried to sue Lotus for using the name. This is in the courts now and everyone involved in the case sees quite a big kicking in the ass for Proton. Expect 2 cars carrying the Lotus name for the next few years - 1 Team Lotus and 1 Lotus sponsored Renault.

      As for there cars being uncompetitive, they didnt exist 4 months before the start of a season, of course they were going to be uncompetitive in that first season. However over the course of the season they made up over 10sec per lap in time difference between them and the fastest cars on the grid. With a full year to prepare this years car, and the experience of last year, i expect team Lotus to be firmly midfield fighting the Force India's, William's and Toro Rosso's.

      So please dont comment about something you have absolutely no idea about, it just shows your ignorance!

    2. Volker Hett
      Heart

      but with the top three only

      F1 would be even more boring!

      I'm with the underdogs.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mentioned on TopGear?

    Who knows. They could talk about it a bit, yo never know.

    At least they picked the correct operating system!!

  12. MikeyD85
    Thumb Up

    This Lotus Team

    Will be so much stronger than Virgin or HRT next season. I can't wait. Shame the article wasn't a little more in depth. Anything during the off season is good!

  13. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    You can't polish a t*** no matter how many speedy nerds you have on the job because ....

    The key bits of the puzzle which either complement and enhance, or degrade and destroy any perceived value in any computer system, [and indeed, in any type of operating system you may imagine] is still always contained in the base/ground zero adage ..... Rubbish In, Rubbish Out.

    Highly imaginative and better use of Beta Brain Power is what wins competitive races. What sort of machine delivers that?

  14. Skizz

    Is that...

    ...bloke in the first two pictures part of the autoclave? He doesn't move between the two photos! Is he a carbon fibre replicant?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    96 Tb's

    96 Tb's? That seems a little small to be able to record more than a single event, but what is their storage load? It must be pretty sizable too - I assume they are using the cloud for real storage???...otherwise...

    a very vague story.

    Paris, because she likes being vague.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I LOLed...

    ... when I saw the Maxis, TuneTalk and 1Malaysia logo decals.

    Especially after all the flak the 1Malaysia logo has been getting lately, and Maxis and TuneTalk are practically telco rivals.

  17. Richard Gadsden 1
    Joke

    Dell?

    Why on earth are they using Dell and not IBM? I mean, then they could use the black-and-yellow Lotus - maybe even try to get one of their cars with the number 123.

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