IMPERIAL War Museum Duxford is able to confirm that, following a successful test day in 2010, Team Lotus will be returning to the museum to conduct aero testing on Wednesday April 27.

Team Lotus will be holding a single full day of testing. Under the terms of the agreement with South Cambridgeshire District Council, the team will operate its test car between 8am and 6pm.

There shall be no more than 180 runs up and down the runway during the day. No reserve day has been booked by the team.

The museum will be open, as usual, between 10am and 6pm.

A spokesman for the museum said: “We continually develop the narrative of scientific and technological innovation told throughout the museum, particularly in AirSpace. The partnership with Team Lotus contributes significantly to this ethos.

Following the 2010 Formula 1 test day, some revisions have been made to the conditions for Formula 1 testing at IWM Duxford in 2011, in agreement with South Cambridgeshire District Council.”

Those revisions:

• There shall be a maximum of five events where a Formula 1 car is allowed to drive on the runway during any calendar year.

• Events shall take place between Monday and Friday in any week and between the hours of 0800 and 1800 hours. No events shall take place on weekends or public holidays.

• There shall be no more than two events in any one calendar month and no more than one event in any one working week (Monday to Friday).

• Noise levels and duration of testing per event shall be similar to that experienced during 2009 and no more than 180 runs up and down the runway will be allowed on any one day.

• Imperial War Museum Duxford shall give at least two weeks’ notice to the parish clerks of Duxford, Whittlesford and Thriplow of any event planned to allow Formula 1 testing on the IWM Duxford runway (this would include any reserve day planned for inclement weather conditions).

• Imperial War Museum Duxford shall give at least two weeks’ notice to any other member of the public living or working within these parishes who requests to be so informed (this would include any reserve day planned for inclement weather

conditions).

• August will be trialled as a potential period for Formula 1 testing during 2011, to gauge public reaction during the main holiday period, with the proviso that it is removed from other years if the level of complaint/ disturbance is far greater than recorded for other months’ events.

• These conditions may be revisited in the future should the need arise.

Team Lotus

Team Lotus began life in September 2009, when Tony Fernandes and his fellow shareholders Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin, along with Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne, were given the news that their application to enter the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship had been accepted.

They immediately set about making preparations for the forthcoming season, which meant designing and building not only a race car, but a whole Formula 1 team.

Just five months later, drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli joined the team’s senior management for the launch of the T127 in its iconic green and yellow livery at a glittering ceremony in London.

Exactly one month later, on 12 March, Lotus Racing, the name that the team competed under in 2010, took to the track for the first practice session of the season opening race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the whole team drawing plaudits from around the world for the astonishing accomplishment of creating a Formula 1 team from nothing in just six months.

Over the following ten months, the team consistently led the ‘battle of the new teams’, finally achieving their 2010 goal of finishing tenth in the championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Off track, the numbers of staff increased throughout the season to reach the current total workforce of 240 and in a momentous announcement at the Singapore Grand Prix, Tony Fernandes confirmed that the team would be bringing back the iconic Team Lotus name for the 2011 season and beyond.

In 2011 Team Lotus is taking the fight to the established midfield F1 teams. With Renault engines and Red Bull Technology gearbox and hydraulic systems powering the car, and an eight month design- and-build process for the T128, rather than the five months they had in 2009, nobody doubts that the Anglo-Malaysian squad will take a significant step forward in 2011 and for many years to come, until they reach their ultimate goal of Formula 1 World Championship glory.

Find out more at teamlotus.co.uk