Gascoigne seeks to put Lotus back in lead

Abu Dhabi: Mike Gascoigne has the aura of a magician. As someone who has spent a major part of his life in the adrenalin-filled world of motorsports, life has taken a full circle for the affable Briton.

Gascoigne was born in Norfolk and grew up there, going to school a mere five miles away from the Lotus factory. So when he was asked to take over the design team for Lotus, it was an offer he could not resist.

During his years at F1, Gascoigne has had highly successful stints as head of the design teams at Renault and Toyota, followed by a brief stint at the BBC. Now Gascoigne has a fresh challenge: Setting up a new outfit for Lotus as it seeks to make a return to F1 from 2010.

The deal was sealed when Formula Three racing team Litespeed revealed that it will revive the classic name, but only if F1's governing body, the FIA, gave it the go-ahead to step up to the sport's top category from next year.

The move was made possible following negotiations between the Lotus name's rights holder, David Hunt, and Litespeed bosses Nino Judge and Steve Kenchington. Both Judge and Kenchington worked for Lotus when it last raced in F1.

Early announcements

Among the early announcements from the team was that former F1 winner and Lotus racer Johnny Herbert would manage the drivers and act as ambassador, and thatGascoigne would head the design team.

Making its debut at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958, Lotus completed 489 F1 races, winning six drivers' titles and seven constructors' trophies. It had 73 race victories, 102 pole positions and 65 fastest laps during its 36 years in F1.

And now Gascoigne has been assigned with this challenge of taking the team through to the next stage.

"Obviously, with the Lotus name we have a heritage and we want to be true to that and we want to deliver results based on that. We want to start as the best of the new teams and by the end of the year we want to be challenging the better teams and I think that is achievable," Gascoigne told Gulf News.

"I've been in the business for 20 years and it is a huge challenge for me personally. It's fresh and it's something that we have not had before, so it's going to be great fun, as we are creating something from nothing," he said.

The excitement for Gascoigne lies in the fact that one can set everything up the way one wants, unlike Brawn GP earlier this season when it took the complete know-how and research from Honda to power its early advantage to its first-ever world title.

‘Everything'

"Brawn had everything for them, whereas we had genuinely nothing and hence we had to make a fresh start from scratch. Secondly, we did not get the OK till the middle of September, and that made a difficult job even more challenging," Gascoigne said.

And Gascoigne does not want Lotus to be just another team. "We want to be a competitive team. Of course, to get truly competitive we will take a couple of years. So our first challenge will be to be the best of the new teams," he said.

The good news is that over the past few years Gascoigne has enjoyed what he has done and achieved with Renault and Toyota.

And yet he sees the huge challenge before him when it comes to helping set up Lotus.

"No doubt I've enjoyed all of my years. But I can see the next two or three years going to be among the most exciting ones of my life for sure. And honestly, I am looking forward to this," he said.

With a staff of around 200 and a budget anywhere between £40 to £60 million, Gascoigne knows he has to use all his experience and weave his magic.

"You can survive with this sort of a budget, but I think we need to be at the upper end of that to be doing a competitive job with a new team. That is certainly what we are aiming for," he said.

This is also something that is personally satisfying to the man. "I think at this stage of my career, to do something like what I am doing, is invigorating. This is totally new and different and I needed this something different in my life.

"To bring the Lotus name back into the mainstream will give me so much of a sense of achievement as Lotus is based in Norfolk," Gascoigne added.

"With so much of Norfolk surrounding me, bringing Lotus back into F1 and doing a new team from scratch is the perfect way to end my career. It's like the circle of life," he added.

Fact file

• Full name: Lotus Engineering Ltd.
• Base: Hethel, Norfolk, UK
• Founder: Colin Chapman
• Noted drivers: Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Sir Stirling Moss, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Mikka Hakkinen, Ronnie Peterson.
• F1 debut: 1958 Monaco GP
• Races completed: 489
• Constructors' titles: 7 (1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978)
• Drivers' titles: 6 (1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1978)
• Race wins: 73
• Pole positions: 102
• Fastest laps: 65
• Final F1 race: 1994 Australian GP

Ambitious plans: Gunning for Trulli

Toyota driver Jarno Trulli will most certainly figure as the main man for the new Lotus team in 2010, according to the design team chief, Mike Gascoigne.

Gascoigne worked with Trulli during his tenure at Renault and the Italian driver is among his favourites for one of two positions in the new team. "The drivers will be announced probably by the end of November. We have been talking to a lot of drivers and obviously I know Jarno very well, as we have worked together in the past. He's obviously one of the drivers who is at the top of our list," Gascoigne said.

Among other plans is the testing of the new car early next year. "We will run the new car in the second week of February. And certainly by the middle to the end of the season we want to be challenging the new and middle placed teams and some of the established and smaller ones like Torro Rosso and Force India," Gascoigne said.

"And definitely, by 2011 we want to be a midfield team. With the budgets we have and the personnel we have coming on board, I think this is very much achievable," he added.