Team Lotus had re-entered Formula One in 2010 as Lotus Racing, finishing the season with a Cosworth-powered car. For 2011, the team secured a full-works engine partnership with Renault for two years, announced on 5 November 2010. Simultaneously, a deal with Red Bull Technology for gearboxes and hydraulics was confirmed in October 2010, a significant upgrade that reflected the team's ambitions to progress toward the midfield. The squad also planned expansion at its British factory base and announced a dedicated wind-tunnel facility.
The T128 was launched online on 31 January 2011, with Team Lotus retaining its unchanged 2010 driver lineup of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli.
The T128 was designed by a trio led by technical director Mike Gascoyne. Key features included a "bladed" roll bar design similar to that developed by Mercedes in 2010, though thicker and modified with sturdier air intakes to conform with FIA regulations. The car used the Renault RS27 engine series in place of the Cosworth CA2010, and the transmission was switched from an X-Trac unit to one built by Red Bull Technologies.
The team confirmed at the start of the season that it would not run the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), though team figures suggested the system could be adopted if the car proved fast enough. In the event, KERS was never fitted and the T128 ran without it for the entire 2011 campaign.
Pre-season testing at Valencia was disrupted by a power steering issue that emerged after the car's roll-out, limiting the team's ability to complete long runs and gather tyre data ahead of the opening round.
The T128 competed across the full 2011 Formula One season, providing Team Lotus with a car that was consistently faster than the Virgin Racing and HRT entries throughout the year, though unable to challenge the established midfield. At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, both cars were eliminated in Q1 during qualifying, disappointing team management who had expected to be closer to the midfield pack. In the race, Kovalainen retired on lap 19 with a water leak, while Trulli finished 13th.
The car's relative performance position held steady through the season. Although Team Lotus consistently outpaced the two backmarker teams in Virgin and HRT, points-scoring positions remained out of reach for the T128 throughout the championship.
The T128's livery carried over the design aesthetic of the team's 2010 car with subtle modifications. An ongoing naming dispute between Team Lotus and the Lotus Renault GP team complicated sponsorship and branding during the season. From the 2011 British Grand Prix onward, the Caterham logo and an associated livery update were added to the cars, reflecting the team's broader commercial relationship with the Caterham group.
As a tribute following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, a commemorative message was carried on the sidepods of the cars at certain events during the season.
The T128 represented a transitional car for the revived Team Lotus operation. While it failed to score points, it established the team as a credible step above the true backmarkers and demonstrated meaningful development potential. The partnership with Red Bull Technologies for the gearbox and the shift to Renault power formed the foundation on which the team intended to build in subsequent seasons. The T128 remains notable as the car under which the re-born Team Lotus nameplate first competed in an era of intense political and commercial controversy over rights to the Lotus name in Formula One.