Team Lotus became the first of three teams to reveal their 2011 challenger today, although the T128 won't be seen in the flesh until pre-season testing in Valencia is underway. Rather than wait, the team revealed their new branding, livery, and chassis design in a special edition of their free online Team Lotus Notes magazine.

Although the team appeared to be the most prepared of the three new entries in 2010, they were happy to admit that the T127 wasn't as strong as it could have been, and development was switched to this year's design as soon as possible. The 2011 iteration is noticeably smoother than it's predecessor, and less blocky, although how this will appear in reality as opposed to in a few released images remains to be seen.

Chief Technical Officer at Lotus, Mike Gascoyne, is happy with what they've achieved, particularly considering there is very little crossover between this car and what they raced with in 2010 - with last year's designs all but thrown out the window.

It really follows current design trends, and aerodynamically it's much more evolved. I mean, a car is really the sum of 4000 small details, so it's hard to pick out specific areas that are particularly brilliant, but overall it's a much more optimised work of design and engineering.

- Mike Gascoyne

Notably, Team Lotus are opting to start the year without any form of KERS package, preferring to concentrate on a nice, clean design before introducing the bulky energy recovery systems. Chief Designer Lewis Butler wasn't prepared to compromise:

The decision not to use KERS made the design job slightly easier, because packaging it in the car is always a bit more of a headache.

- Lewis Butler

Reading a bit further, it doesn't seem like the team are at all keen to introduce KERS at any point throughout the season, weighing up the benefits with the costs and not seeing a particularly encouraging answer.

Both drivers will be satisfied, as long as they start moving up the order now. Trulli has not made it a secret that he's expecting greater things from his team this year, and he says:

Last year we were just aiming to finish the race. This year we'll be aiming to finish in the points. With the package we have, that should be achievable.

- Jarno Trulli

We will see the T128 in action on Wednesday as Lotus join the Valencia test on its second day.