Lotus F1 Team, E20 Romain Grosjean, 2012 Race Car

Corgi presents the Lotus collection, a series of die-cast 1:43 scale detailed model cars. Each model carries an authentic Lotus livery and comes complete with a collector card detailing information about the car modelled. The model is presented in a plastic case of which it can be removed for display.

This series of models includes Lotus road cars and motorsport, including Lotus Formula One.  For over sixty years, British car manufacturer Lotus has been designing and building sports and racing cars. The first Lotus car was built in 1948 by Colin Chapman in North London and soon afterwards Lotus was competing very successfully in some of the greatest motorsport championships in the world, including Formula One and Le Mans. 

Today the Lotus headquarters is based on a former RAF World War Two airfield in Norfolk, it is here where they currently design, test and build their current models.  Throughout the Lotus history the manufacturing and design has always been built on producing light-weight cars with fine handling, creating some of the finest sports cars that are available today.

Lotus Cars have been involved in Formula One racing since 1958.  The current Lotus F1 Team is based at Enstone, Oxfordshire and was originally founded in 1981 as the Toleman Motorsport Team.  Today they operate under the name ‘Lotus F1 Team’ and debuted the 2012 car, the Lotus Renault E20, at the Australian Grand Prix with the Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen and French driver Romain Grosjean.

The Lotus F1™ Team debuted at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix with the new E20 chassis which was designed and manufactured at the team’s Oxfordshire based technical facility.  The chassis is made from carbon fibre and aluminium making it strong but also light in weight – including driver, cameras and ballast the E20 weighs only 640kg.  The car is powered by a Renault RS27-2012 engine, a 2.4 litre V8 with a displacement of 2400cc and power output of 750 bhp.

Romain Grosjean’s first involvement with Formula One was in 2009 when he drove as a test and race driver for the Renault F1 Team.  Between 2010 and 2011 he worked his way through several racing series including GP2 before returning to F1 in 2012.  Romain has lived most of his life in Switzerland where he was born but races under a French nationality.  On the 9th December 2011 it was announced that Romain would partner Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 season, marking Romain’s return to the sport.

Produced under licence from Group Lotus Plc as master licensee of Lotus F1 Team Limited. LOTUS and the Lotus Roundel are trademarks of Group Lotus Plc. LOTUS F1 TEAM name and logo are trademarks owned by, or used under licence by, Lotus F1 Team Limited and Group Lotus Plc. F1® is a trademark of Formula One Licensing BV.

(Car designs and livery are the property of Lotus F1 Team Ltd and protected by copyright and designs law).