Lotus: Eric Boullier happy but not yet confident for 2013
If the director of the Lotus team claims to be happy with his team's performance during the first two private test sessions of the 2013 season, he refuses to become overconfident and awaits the last week of testing in Barcelona to draw the first conclusions about the objectives his team can hope to achieve in 2013.
After a rather encouraging 2012 season with a victory for Kimi Räikkönen, a podium finish in the drivers’ standings, and fourth place in the constructors’ championship, Lotus approaches the 2013 season with the tag of a challenger that must confirm and, if possible, build on their success.
Whether in Jerez or Barcelona, the Enstone team has shown it is on the right track: « The Lotus impressed me a lot in corners. It has incredible, extraordinary grip, it doesn’t move, » notes Esteban Gutiérrez (Sauber), making the British team the main rival of Red Bull in the fight for the title.
“It’s good to finish a week of testing on a second track with only positive things to say about the car,” confesses Alan Permane, trackside operations director at Lotus. “We are looking forward to the next four days of testing that will begin here next week as we will evaluate some new aerodynamic components.”
For his part, Eric Boullier, director of the British team, keeps his prediction for the upcoming season reserved: « Am I confident? No. Happy? Yes. These are only tests, and I know that during the next tests, everyone will bring their Melbourne package, so we’ll see next weekend what it’s like, and then we can start drawing some conclusions. In the end, we’ll see that in Melbourne. I hope no one will find a second of performance between now and Melbourne, but we’ll see… it doesn’t work like that. We should make reasonable progress. »
For now, the Lotus E21 has proven that it has inherited the qualities of its predecessor, particularly in tire management, while the Italian rubbers have been marked by significant degradation during the first week of private testing in Barcelona. On this issue, which raises some concern in the paddock and among Formula 1 fans, the French manager remains optimistic: « They are degrading more, but once again, we observed it last year when it was cold, the tires were completely outside their operating window, and the graining phenomenon was massive. Now, we need to wait for higher temperatures to see if the tires will work differently because I remember that in Brazil, the tires [that the teams could try for the first time in practice, ed.] did not degrade too much. »
