Is Lotus Having Trouble Delivering DW12 Engines?

Lotus Dragon Racing teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Katherine Legge compare notes during the spring session for IZOD IndyCar Series teams held at Sebring, Florida. Image Credit: Dave Lewandowski via IZOD IndyCar Series

Is Lotus Having Trouble Delivering DW12 Engines?

Is the first race of the season through the streets of Saint Petersburg in jeopardy for teams that use the newest of engines developed for use in the IZOD IndyCar Series for 2012?

These are the kind of questions that arise when one sees a Tweet communication on Twitter like the one that follows:

brant james@brantjames - Says SebastIen Bourdais: he expects to race in @GPSTPETE #indycar but his Dragon Racing car currently no Lotus engine. Disconcerting? yes.

Lotus Dragon Racing driver, Katherine Legge during the Sebring spring test session. Image Credit: LAT via IZOD IndyCar Series

Is this just an issue with Seabass's DW12 or is this portend a wider problem with Lotus Dragon Racing and will this effect the second car on the team, the TrueCar sponsored DW12 driven by Kathrine Legge?

Lotus Bryan Herta Autosport's Alex Tagliani in his Barracuda Networks sponsored DW12 during the Sebring spring test session. Image Credit: LAT via IZOD IndyCar Series

Will this situation effect the rest of the teams (Bryan Herta Autosport, Lotus Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Lotus HVM Racing) that are using the Lotus/Judd 2.2 litre turbo-charged power plant?

If Lotus engines are in short supply, how will this potential situation play out for the "Lotus Legion" for the balance of the 2012 season?

Just askin'!

UPDATE: This excerpted and edited from Autoweek -

Bourdais, a four-time Champ Car champion embarking on a full-time IndyCar season, told Autoweek that as of Wednesday morning, Lotus had not provided an engine for his car. He is entered for the Sunday race. He said he expects to participate. But he also expected to have an engine by now.

Teammate Katherine Legge's engine is scheduled, he said, to arrive on Wednesday (it is assumed this engine arrived).

“The only question mark is mine,” Bourdais said. “We don't know. They haven't given us a date yet. That is the big question mark. The team is ready. The car is ready. It's just a matter of putting something in it that will get the car moving forward.”

Bourdais said team owner Jay Penske is “a victim in all this.” “[Lotus] told us they would have seven or eight engines by the first race. But since my engine is coming . . . I don't know when, either there are spare engines they don't want to give to us or they don't have any engines at all,” Bourdais added. “And that I don't know.” Dragon received just one engine during spring testing at Sebring International Raceway--and not until Wednesday night of the four-day session--severely limiting both Bourdais and Legge's test time.

“It definitely doesn't get us anywhere near where we want to be,” Bourdais said, adding that he and Dragon “expect nothing” results-wise from the opening weeks of the season. Bourdais said his team is funded for a full campaign, but he will not race at Milwaukee on June 16 because of a commitment to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
[Reference Here]

UPDATE #2 - Thursday night, approximately 8:00PM PT

Edmund Jenks @TheEDJE
RT @JennaFryer: Word on the street is Bourdais got his Lotus tonight #indycar #lotus #ccws #gpstpete #dragonracing

... notes from The EDJE