It didn’t take long for Lotus F1 to crash into the Formula One scene, did it?

Days after signaling their return with the unveiling of the new Lotus T127, Lotus ended up crashing one of their cars into a tire wall during a recent testing session at Jerez. The culprit was former McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, who seems to be building a growing reputation of a practice-day crasher in his short time in Formula One.

What was intriguing about the whole episode wasn’t the crash itself but the way Lotus is trying to keep the T127 shielded from any curious ‘bird watchers’ in the area. As soon as Kovalainen crashed his car, engineers from Lotus quickly ran down to the scene to put drapes on the car and to look for as many loose parts of the T127 before throwing fabric barricades over their garage.

It seems interesting that Lotus would react this way after having one of their cars crash into a tire wall. Maybe they’re not ready to divulge their trade secrets just yet, or maybe because, in light of the increasing occurrences of ‘spying’ among teams, they’re just trying to keep the poking noses out of their business.

Either way, it’s a pretty ominous start for the boys in green and yellow. Here’s to hoping that they don’t wreck anymore cars until the season starts.

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