[3] The chassis was designed by Nick Chester, Chris Cooney, Martin Tolliday and Nicolas Hennel with Renault supplying the team's powertrain.

The team was forced to miss the first pre-season test at Jerez de la Frontera,[6] but released computer-rendered images of the car in the week beforehand, showing a distinctive asymmetrical forked nose design.

[7] After disappointing results in the first few races, the car picked up pace when the season came to Europe, with Romain Grosjean qualifying fifth and coming home in eighth position at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Lotus nevertheless struggled to earn points throughout the season, with only two more point-scoring finishes at Monaco for Grosjean and in the United States for Maldonado.

The team would admit that a fundamental design flaw on the chassis was hugely responsible for the poor performance during the season.