page_title: Lotus E20
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: Lotus E20 / Season review
caption_attribution_description: Raikkonen
context_page_description: The Lotus E20 is a Formula One racing car designed and produced by the Enstone-based Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 Formula One season. The chassis was designed by James Allison, Naoki Tokunaga, Martin Tolliday and Dirk de Beer with Renault continuing to supply engines. The E20 was the twentieth Formula One car to be designed at Enstone since 1992, and was named in tribute to the contribution made by the facility and its personnel in their twenty-year history. The car was also the first from Enstone to carry the Lotus name, since the team ceased using the Renault name following their renaming from Lotus Renault GP at the end of 2011. The car, which was launched by the team on its website on 5 February 2012, was driven by 2007 World Drivers' Champion Kimi Räikkönen and 2011 GP2 Series champion Romain Grosjean, both of whom returned to Formula One after a two-year absence.
  The car made its competitive debut at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, and in the twenty races of the 2012 season, recorded a race win in Abu Dhabi and nine podium finishes to finish fourth overall in the World Constructors' Championship.
context_section_description: The Lotus E20 showed its potential early in the season when Romain Grosjean qualified third for the Australian Grand Prix. However, the team would go on to experience a difficult season in which they never quite made the most of the car's potential, let down by poor race management and frequent entanglements in on-track incidents. Despite predictions that the team would be competing for race wins — if not the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships' — as early as April, the team would remain winless by October.
  Grosjean's strong performance in qualifying for the race in Australia came to nothing when he made contact with Pastor Maldonado on the second lap and retired on the spot. Kimi Räikkönen, who had struggled in qualifying an started the race from seventeenth place, made the best of a bad situation to finish the race seventh. The team fared little better in the next race in Malaysia; both Grosjean and Räikkönen qualified comfortably inside the top ten, but Grosjean made contact with Michael Schumacher on the first lap and slipped down the order before spinning off, while Räikkönen was given a grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change and had to fight to recover to fifth. The team's troubles continued in China; once again, both drivers qualified inside the top ten, but Räikkönen's race was compromised by poor tyre management and he lost eleven positions in a single lap. Grosjean, on the other hand, managed a clean race and was rewarded with his first points in Formula One.
  The Bahrain Grand Prix represented a breakthrough for the team, with both Räikkönen and Grosjean finishing the race on the podium behind race winner Sebastian Vettel. Both drivers had challenged Vettel for the lead over the course of the race, and while neither managed to catch the reigning World Champion, it was an encouraging sign for team, and one that they would back up at the next race in Spain, with Räikkönen scoring his second consecutive podium after attempting a daring strategy in which he tried to force race winner Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso to drive beyond the life expectancy of their tyres. Räikkönen ran out of laps before Maldonado and Alonso ran out of grip, and the 2007 World Champion finished third, with Grosjean fourth.
  The team's fortunes came crashing back down to earth in Monaco when Grosjean was at the centre of a first-lap accident that put himself, Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa out of the race. Räikkönen, meanwhile, struggled after losing valuable track time during Friday practice, as he was unhappy with parts introduced onto the car for the race. He qualified eighth and went on to finish the race ninth. The team's poor form in Monaco proved to be an exception, rather than the rule, as Grosjean went on to finish the Canadian Grand Prix in second place after race leaders Alonso and Vettel fell victim to the ultra-sensitive Pirelli tyres; Grosjean later admitted that he had not thought a podium was possible until he found himself running second with three laps left to run. Räikkönen, on the other hand, missed out on a spot in the top ten on the grid, and so had to work his way up from twelfth to eighth. Grosjean was in contention for his maiden race win in Valencia after an alternator failure forced race leader Sebastian Vettel to retire. Grosjean kept pace with new race leader Fernando Alonso, only to fall victim to the same alternator failure seven laps later. Räikkönen, meanwhile, took advantage of this to finish the race second behind Alonso.
  The British Grand Prix proved disappointing for Lotus, with Grosjean spinning off during qualifying and Räikkönen struggling with the wet conditions. In the race, Grosjean made contact with Paul di Resta on the first lap; di Resta retired, while Grosjean was forced to pit for a new front wing, shuffling him back down the order to twenty-third. He later recovered to finish sixth behind Räikkönen, both drivers having struggled to match the leaders for pace all race long. Both drivers struggled in qualifying for the German Grand Prix, with Räikkönen starti
caption: Kimi Räikkönen at the Singapore Grand Prix.
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