Lotus satisfied with its performance in Jerez

Lotus F1 Team is, with 402 laps, the team that completed the most laps last week during the first private testing sessions. And the results are noteworthy since it was Kimi Räikkönen who set the fastest time on the first day of testing, while Romain Grosjean recorded the second fastest time on the third day, behind Nico Rosberg and his 2011 W02!

James Allison said he was very happy with the performances displayed by Lotus: “I am quite pleased in the sense that we spent a lot of time on the track, whereas last year, we were mostly in the garage. We have accumulated a lot more kilometers than the other teams and that has been very useful! The car seems to be working properly, so we are very satisfied,” admitted the technical director of the British team.

The new Lotus E20 indeed does not seem to lack performance and speed, even though Allison believes it is too early to define its potential: « The work done is relatively positive. Members of other teams like to guess the strengths of each car and the processes used. But these tests don’t mean much until Melbourne.

Certainly the car performed well this week, we didn’t have any problems and our drivers had a good feeling with it from the first laps: that’s why we are satisfied!

Finally, James Allison also wanted to commend the quality of work by French driver Romain Grosjean, who is returning to Formula 1 after a brief stint in 2009. Indeed, he set the fastest time among all the new cars: Romain immediately seemed very fast and we have two very good drivers! Kimi can serve as a benchmark for him with his experience, so it’s a great opportunity for him.

The English team is now heading towards the Barcelona tests, with the ambition to build on the progress made in Jerez and prepare for the championship.