Lotus has unveiled the new E21 Formula 1 car that it hopes will provide a springboard for it to become a top team in 2013.
The event was moved inside the Lotus factory after the team's outdoor marquee was disrupted by strong winds.
Technical director James Allison said that while the E21 looked outwardly similar to its predecessor, it had undergone plenty of changes.
"There is a lot gone into it and it is going to be an exciting car," he said. "The rules for 2013 are very, very similar to 2012 so you can expect a lot of family resemblance from the 2012 car, but the devil is in the detail and it adds up to a significant amount of performance. There are lots of new ideas and same concepts we have been pushing on with for a few years.
"Depending on where you look, some parts of the new car are a ground-up redesign and in other areas we have further optimized the best bits of the design philosophy we've adopted for several seasons," he added. "The front and rear suspension layouts are substantially revised to try and give us better aerodynamic opportunities. The front wing is a continuation of the concepts we have worked on since the 2009 rules were published.
"For the rear wing system, we've continued to try to work on having a satisfactory level of rear downforce stability while having maximum DRS switching potential."
The E21 will feature the passive double DRS that the team evaluated last year, and the squad has elected not to run with the "vanity panel" that is allowed this year to hide the stepped nose (see separate story).
Allison has high hopes for the new car, but is equally aware that its performance will only become clear once the outfit starts racing.
"The E20 proved itself to be an effective racing car, so there is an element of expectation from the E21," he said. "We have continued with our design themes and tried to build a more efficient and faster racing car based on all the lessons we learned last year. How successful we have been at this we will only know once we take to the track at grands prix."