Lotus: The switch to Mercedes was an excellent opportunity for 2015
The Lotus F1 team cars will be equipped with Mercedes hybrid engines in 2015 as it is the best available according to Gérard Lopez and the opportunity had to be seized. The Enstone team will also continue its partnership with Total.
Next season, the Lotus F1 team will have a Mercedes power unit, thus ending almost 20 years of partnership with Renault for the Enstone team. But the decision was motivated by the desire to return to the top after a complicated 2014 season.
Gérard Lopez, boss of the team with black and gold single-seaters, told *Autosport* that the opportunity was too good to pass up: « Clearly Mercedes has the [best] engine; we expect them to continue having it – they simply did a better job. And we are one of the few independent teams that can have access to this engine. I think for the team, it was the right decision. »
The Luxembourger believes that this choice was the best from a performance standpoint because the V6 Turbo engine from the star brand has proven to be more competitive than that of the diamond brand this year and this should continue according to him: Renault clearly suffered this season, I don’t think they will suffer as much next year, but I also don’t think they will catch up to Mercedes quickly, so for us it was a performance-based decision. I think Renault has already focused well on one team, or at least two teams, in terms of bench testing. That’s how it is and it is certain that this change is good for us.
With the use of Mercedes engines, Lotus will also use fuel from the official partner supplier of the star brand, namely Petronas. However, on the lubricants side, the partnership with Total is expected to continue, as explained by the team’s technical director, Nick Chester.
« It is so difficult to validate a new engine with a different fuel. Obviously, Mercedes will really only develop things with Petronas, so if you choose a different fuel, you’re not putting yourself in a good position. Then you have a lot of extra work to do to try your fuel on their bench, so it makes sense to choose Petronas for fuel and engine oil. But we have a very good partnership with Total and we will continue to use Total for other lubricants. So for lubricants and gearbox oils, we will use Total, because many of our parts have been developed with Total over the years and it would be tricky to switch to someone else, » explains Chester for Autosport.
Nick Chester also stated that Lotus would not follow Force India’s example by sourcing its rear end from Mercedes: « This locks you into a specific suspension geometry and the rear of the car, and we also have good gearbox designers at Enstone, so we want to continue our own development. »
