Lotus wants its IndyCar involvement to be more than just a marketing exercise. (LAT photo)
Lotus Motorsport will expand its IndyCar partnership with KV Racing in 2011 and has confirmed that it will design bodywork for the new-for-2012, next-generation IZOD IndyCar Series rules.
The company, which in its original incarnation won the 1965 Indianapolis 500, returned to American motorsport in a sponsorship and technical support deal with KV this season. The tie-up saw Takuma Sato running a classic green Lotus livery on his Dallara Indy car for his rookie season. Lotus says it will stick with KV through 2011, and that next year it will back at least two of the team's cars.
"The 2011 IndyCar season will see Lotus continue to work with KV Racing Technology providing further technical and engineering support, fielding a minimum of two cars on the grid," said a Lotus statement.
KV currently enters three cars full time, with Mario Moraes and EJ Viso running alongside Sato but under different sponsorship.
Under the 2012 IndyCar regulations, constructors are being invited to design bodywork packages to run on a Dallara-designed central cell. Lotus Motorsport boss Claudio Berro said earlier this summer that the company was set to get involved under the new rules.
"We plan to do our own body kit. It is a natural evolution of our involvement in the IndyCar Series," Berno said in July, and Lotus confirmed today that it will "commence development on new body work and chassis – in line with the new regulation scheduled for implementation in 2012."