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[TennisUK]

I recently picked up a copy of Autocourse 89/90 and last night read a feature about the rather dreadful year Lotus had in 1989. It mentioned that Frank Dernie joined in November 1988 and that just getting to the first race  in Rio was a bit of a drama - surely exacerbated by the significant change in formula that year. Was it usual as late as 1989 for a reasonably big team (they still were, relative to most of the grid in 1989) to leave the layout of the car THAT late? I understand they retained the read suspension (so presumably gearbox?) and fuel system as per the equally poor '88 car to help save a bit of time. Interesting to me is that the chassis didn't seem too bad early in the year, until after Imola when it nose dived until Silverstone (which was a fantastic performance given the asthmatic Judd V8 hardly being suited to the old style Silverstone).