Lotus LMP1 to be unveiled at Le Mans

The new Lotus T129 LMP1 contender will be unveiled next week at Le Mans.

The German Lotus LMP team has disclosed that the AER-engined car, which has been built to the LMP1-L privateer rules, has been completed and will be shown as scheduled during the week leading up to the Le Mans 24 Hours on June 14-15.

A team spokesman told AUTOSPORT: "The car is finished and it is a full runner; the livery is arriving on Friday and we will be taking the car to Le Mans next week."

The homologation of the car is in the process of being completed and the T129 will begin testing shortly after Le Mans ahead of its planned race debut at the Austin round of the World Endurance Championship in September.

The Lotus LMP squad, which ran in LMP2 in the 2012-'13 WEC, missed the first two rounds of the series at Silverstone and Spa and was then forced to withdraw from Le Mans after a series of delays. These resulted from a late switch of engine from an Audi-based normally aspirated V8 to AER's twin-turbo V6.

Christijan Albers was the only confirmed driver for the team, which has a full-season WEC entry, but it was likely that Pierre Kaffer and Christophe Bouchut would have driven had the car made it to Le Mans.