Lotus set their sights on fourth place in the constructors' championship as the team peeled back the covers on their 2012 challenger on Sunday.

The Enstone-based team - who competed as Renault last season - presented the new Lotus E20 via an online broadcast on their website - a move in keeping with what has been a winter of low-key launches by Formula One's constructors.

The team endured a turbulent time in 2011 after losing the services of lead driver Robert Kubica when the Pole suffered serious injuries in a rallying accident a year ago on Monday, while their legal row with another F1 outfit over the rights use of the Lotus name was an unwanted distraction.

Just 73 points were scored last season - a number in stark contrast to world champions Red Bull's 650 - as the team finished fifth in the final standings.

Mercedes finished fourth with 165 points, and Lotus team chairman Gerard Lopez admits closing the gap to the German manufacturer has to be the target before any thought can be given to tackling the big three of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

"We're trying to bring the car up to the front of the pack," said Lopez.

"We are trying to aim for fourth as a reasonable goal for this season."

Lotus' E20 adheres to new rules restricting the positioning of exhaust outlets, meaning they have been required to take a step back from their innovative design of last year, when the pipes exited at the front of the sidepods in a bid to improve the flow of exhaust gasses around the car.

The car also features a 'step' at the point the monocoque meets the front wing, which complies with new safety regulations aimed at reducing the risk of nose sections entering the cockpits of other cars.

While those two changes are the most striking, the car features hundreds of subtle revisions from last season, and team principal Eric Boullier is optimistic the changes will pay dividends.

"It's true that the team's reputation is good in terms of innovation and we brought through the last years some nice ones, and some more delicate ones, but definitely we have some this year," he said.

"My biggest hope is to bring this positivity back again and to make sure this team is again at the front of the grid and for many years."

Lotus head into 2012 with an entirely new driver line-up.

With Kubica still facing an uncertain future as he continues to recover from his injuries, the team has elected to dispose of the drivers who finished last season - Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna - in favour of a combination of experience and youth in Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, returns to F1 after two years away from the sport during which time he raced in the World Rally Championship, while Grosjean, the reigning GP2 champion, gets a second bite at F1 following an underwhelming seven-race stint for Renault in 2009.

"In the case of Kimi, we clearly wanted a driver with experience," said Boullier. "He's been with big teams and has huge experience. He's eager and he's fast.

"And for Romain, we want to nurture a young driver with great talent. He achieved a lot in the junior categories. We monitored him a lot and we know what he's capable of."

The E20 will be given a demonstration run at Jerez tomorrow before the first test of the year begins in earnest at the Spanish circuit on Tuesday, and Raikkonen - whose only running for the team came at the wheel of a 2010-spec car last month - insists he is looking forward to the challenge ahead.

"It will be something slightly different than it used to be, with a different team and different regulations," the Finn said. "But I was pretty happy after the first test we did a few weeks ago, it felt pretty normal already so I think it will be okay. I'm happy so far."

Grosjean, meanwhile, is ready to learn all he can from Raikkonen, who made his F1 debut in 2001 and was won 18 grands prix.

"I think I will be able to get a lot from him," he said. "We need to work to bring the team forward, which is our main goal.

"We are all expecting a lot from this year."