» Forward-facing exhaust, take two?

No doubt hoping to get an edge over its rivals, the Lotus F1 team has reportedly developed a new innovation for its 2012 challenger: a radical braking system.

Last year, the team (under its Renault guise) developed radical forward-facing exhausts on its R31 challenger, which supposedly helped the team to some rapid pre-season testing times.

But the design concept proved rather more troublesome and not nearly as advantageous as first thought, and the team did not have the impetus to keep its development – as was evidenced by the team starting the year with two podiums, but ending it with Q1 eliminations and scraping the odd point.

So is this new braking system the panacea that they are looking for, or another gimmick that will deliver little more than a placebo effect?

Acclaimed F1 illustrator Giorgio Piolo has apparently unearthed the braking development, a mechanically operated system – like the now-banned ‘F-duct’ – and that it will keep the car’s ride height stable under braking, and in turn, keep the front wing’s performance more effective.

The innovation was apparently discovered during the ‘Young Drivers’ test session at Abu Dhabi in November.

[Original image via LAT]