Lotus Cars have been involved in Formula One racing since 1958. The current Lotus F1 Team is based at Enstone, Oxfordshire and was originally founded in 1981 as the Toleman Motorsport Team. Today they operate under the name 'Lotus F1 Team' and debuted the 2012 car, the Lotus Renault E20, at the Australian Grand Prix with the Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen and French driver Romain Grosjean.
The Lotus F1TM Team debuted at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix with the new E20 chassis which was designed and manufactured at the team's Oxfordshire based technical facility. The chassis is made from carbon fibre and aluminium making it strong but also light in weight – including driver, cameras and ballast the E20 weighs only 640kg. The car is powered by a Renault RS27-2012 engine, a 2.4 litre V8 with a displacement of 2400cc and power output of 750 bhp.
Romain Grosjean's first involvement with Formula One was in 2009 when he drove as a test and race driver for the Renault F1 Team. Between 2010 and 2011 he worked his way through several racing series including GP2 before returning to F1 in 2012. Romain has lived most of his life in Switzerland where he was born but races under a French nationality. On the 9th December 2011 it was announced that Romain would partner Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 season, marking Romain's return to the sport.