2011 car revealed by Team Lotus

Team Lotus on Monday revealed its 2011 car. In an edition of its online magazine Team Lotus Notes, the team published the first photographs of the new green and gold TL11 featuring a Mercedes-style unconventional airbox shape.

The new livery features more yellow and prominent Renault signage, reflecting its new engine partnership with the French marque.

The car itself, with a rear end supplied by Red Bull, has a high and straight nose similar to the other designs seen so far including the Ferrari and Mercedes.

"It is a much more contemporary design. The car really will be a midfield runner. It's a modern F1 car," technical boss Mike Gascoyne is quoted as saying.

"There's been almost no carry-over of parts for the 2011 car — it looks substantially different from last year's car. It's the basis of our cars for the future," he added.

"I think that basically this car looks like a front running car in every area," he said. "We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that's very achievable."

This year's Team Lotus car is called T128, not TL11 as was previously announced.

"Why the change of name?" wrote team boss Tony Fernandes on Twitter. "Because we are continuing with history. We are a new dynasty but tradition continues."

Last year, the team – then called Lotus Racing under official license from the Proton-owned carmaker Group Lotus – raced its 2010 car with the T127 designation.

T127 was the continuation of the original Lotus team's traditional vehicle designation system, and it was thought that the reversion to TL11 for this year was to avoid yet another clash with Group Lotus amid the naming dispute.

Indicating that the designation of the 2011 car was an issue right until the T128's reveal very early on Monday morning, the launch magazine made no mention of the two variations.