Driving Sports

Lotus and Cosworth have entered into a new technical and commercial partnership with established IndyCar competitors KV Racing Technology to compete in the 2010 IndyCar Series. The Lotus-Cosworth IndyCar will use the classic British Racing Green and Yellow "Lotus stripe" livery used on Lotus Racing cars in the 1950s and 1960s. The new-old livery will debut at the first USA round of the IndyCar Series.

Driving the Lotus Cosworth IndyCar will be the former F1 driver Takuma "Taku" Sato. He is 33 years old and a native of Tokyo, Japan. He is also a veteran of seven Formula 1 seasons and will be contesting his first IndyCar season this year. Sato had his best F1 season in 2004, driving full time for BAR-Honda where he placed eighth in the championship with 34 points. “This is fantastic news for everyone. It is exciting for me to be a Lotus driver and I’m really looking forward to great success with this new project,” Sato said.

Although Lotus is best known for sports car racing and Formula 1, the company competed for a number of years in the IndyCar Series in the 1960s, winning the Indianapolis 500 race outright in 1965 with the pioneering Lotus Type 38, driven by Jim Clark, and narrowly missed victory to come second in 1963 in a then-new rear-engine car.

The return to the IndyCar Series follows on from the recent announcement by Lotus and Cosworth to become closely associated through a strategic partnership looking at the opportunity to develop high performance engines for Lotus road and race cars.

The 2010 IndyCar Series starts with the Sao Paolo Indy 300, Brazil on March 14, 2010.