[1] The car made its track début in the hands of test driver Fairuz Fauzy on 17 February 2010 at Circuito de Jerez.

On 15 September 2009, the FIA announced that the Malaysian-backed team Lotus Racing had been granted admission into the 2010 season.

On 17 November, Gascoyne and Fernandes gave a joint interview saying they're "feeling the pressure of the famous name".

At the first practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, both Kovalainen and Trulli set times, albeit both slower than Glock's Virgin by 200 and 300 tenths respectively.

Trulli retired on lap 46 due to hydraulic issues, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race leader's distance.

[13] In qualifying, at Lotus Racing's home grand prix, the weather provided numerous high-profile casualties during the early period of the session, as both McLaren and Ferrari drivers inexplicably opted to remain in their garages while the rest of the fieldset banker laps, before the rain arrived.

By the time they made their way onto the track, the rain had set in, and it proved impossible to complete a lap good enough to make it into Q2.

When the safety car came out, Kovalainen did not pit, and he ran as high as 6th place, the first time one of the new teams had run in a points-scoring position all season.

[15] At the Spanish Grand Prix first practice session, Kovalainen was once again the fastest of the new teams, his Lotus T127 finishing four seconds slower than Hamilton and less than two behind the Williams of Nico Hülkenberg.

Following concerns over the tight and narrow nature of the Monaco circuit combined with new teams Virgin Racing, Lotus and Hispania being between three and six seconds slower than the established teams over the course of a lap and therefore creating a very real possibility for a slower car compromising the flying laps of their faster counterparts, the suggestion was put forth to split the first session of qualifying into two groups of twelve cars, similar to the format used by the IndyCar Series.

[16] The FIA later set a maximum allowable lap time for qualifying, with any car that is slower than one minute and twenty-two seconds between the first and last corners facing penalties from the stewards.

In the race, Trulli had a problem car in the pits, the mechanics took an age to get the nut off his back wheel.

[19] In Turkey, Lotus débuted a new rear wing specification which improved the forward balance of their chassis.

[20] They yet again out-qualified the two other new teams, but both suffered a hydraulics issue, with Trulli grinding to a halt on lap 35, while Kovalainen retired the lap after with a power steering failure, in turn, eight which was followed by him not being able to operate his gearbox, clutch and throttle coming into the pits and his car was pushed into the Lotus garage.

At the Canadian Grand Prix, Trulli stopped in the pit entry on lap forty-seven with terminal brake problems.

At the European Grand Prix in Valencia, the team marked the 500th race in the Lotus marque's history.

[22][23] Webber's car landed on its nose and careered into the turn 12 run-off area at high speed and collided with a tyre barrier.

[26] Webber later admitted that he misjudged how early Kovalainen would brake for the corner but felt the latter had moved more than once while defending the position.

It also became known that Lotus were nearing a deal to use Renault engines for the 2011 Formula One season, because of the number of issues involving their transmission system with their car and the Cosworth CA2010.

At the German Grand Prix, Trulli suffered gearbox problems, where he could not select 2nd gear, and retired.

[31] At the Singapore Grand Prix, Trulli drove to the pit lane and was pushed by his mechanics into the Lotus garage to retire with a hydraulic issue on lap 28.

Kovalainen and Buemi made contact in the final sector of the lap, with the latter spinning around in front of the Toro Rosso, who was quick to avoid a head-on collision.

Kovalainen's car suffered a cracked fuel tank pressure release valve and he limped back to the pit lane, the rear of his Lotus catching fire during the final few turns.

By the end of the season, even though they did not bring any more updates to the car after Britain, it was evident that Lotus was the clear faster of the three new teams.