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Piquet's Lotus career


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#1 Louis Mr. F1

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Posted 26 May 2006 - 02:47

I think Piquet couldn't believe how uncompetitive the 1988 Lotus turn out to be, and his career went downhill. My question is "When he signed the contract with Lotus, did he know that they wouldn't continue with the Active system in 1988?" anyone know when they made the decision to drop the system, if they'd continued with it, and with Piquet's Williams active testing experience, the Lotus could have challenge the McLaren in 88.

what a pity.

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#2 L'Autista

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Posted 23 June 2006 - 06:17

My personal opinion was that even with active suspension the Lotus would have struggled to match the McLaren that year. I recall the positioning of the Honda engine created a higher centre of gravity for the Lotus when compared to the McLaren. Couple that with the other Lotus chassis shortcomings and with a Piquet who seemed to lose a bit of his speed after that Imola accident in 1987 and it is easy to see why they struggled.

I can dig up some archives in regard to if he knew about the cessation of the active program- going on memory the project was canned before he signed, but I will double check.