Lotus boss Eric Boullier thinks the team should not feel disappointed over Valencia – Formula 1 news
Lotus boss Eric Boullier believes that there is no reason for his team to feel down over the result of the recently concluded European Grand Prix.
Lotus performed impressively at Valencia as Kimi Raikkonen went on to finish second in the race. Before Raikkonen came in the fray of the second spot, his teammate Romain Grosjean was in the hunt for the first position.
Grosjean looked very impressive in the race and had a good enough chance of making his maiden victory a possibility at Valencia as he was managing his tyres really well and Fernando Alonso might have found it hard to keep him away.
As Grosjean was trying to close in on the gap his car’s engine faced a technical fault and stopped on him. The issue was very similar to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel’s issue who also lost a probable victory due to a technical failure of his car.
It was later found out that the Renault engines alternator was the reason behind both cars failure to complete the race. It was a lost opportunity for Lotus to have two drivers standing at the podium.
Boullier thinks that his team should look ahead to the challenges ahead and take the positives from the last race.
“You cannot be disappointed with the pace,” he told AUTOSPORT. “Everybody has improved their car, so everybody is improving their pace as well. I think it was a good outcome from the weekend.”
“We were able to qualify better, and ignoring retirements we had the pace fast enough to have both our cars in the top five in the final result. It was disappointing that Romain could not finish the race, because he had a good start, a good qualifying and a good race - but all in all it is very positive,” he added.
Raikkonen’s podium finish has helped Lotus move up to third place in the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari is closing on the deficit but there is still plenty of races left in the season. Lotus will be banking on its cars ability to manage the tyres better than other leading cars on the grid to get improved results.
It will be interesting to see how the team fares in the season ahead.
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