Romain Grosjean goes through the first day problem free – Formula 1 news
Romain Grosjean driving the Lotus E20 on the first day of the final test had a problem free start.
Lotus had to cut short their second test running as the car had a major chassis fault which caused the team to cancel the test run after only 7 laps had been completed.
Lotus management now feels confident of the car and its reliability. Grosjean went on to set the fastest lap time of the day and said that the car feels so solid that last week’s incident did not even cross his mind.
“I think drivers are mad in a way, you don't think about it,” he said. “When you jump in a car you never think that it could be dangerous. I knew the team had worked really hard, I knew the team was doing what we needed to and I knew the numbers said it
was fine, so no worries.”
“You can trust the car and push it to the limit. If you push too much you know what is going to happen next and this is really good when you are driving a car. If you push hard it under-steers in a fast corner and if you push a little bit harder it under-steers
a little bit more, but it's not snapping [into over-steer] from nowhere,” he said.
Grosjean conceded that though Lotus looks quite strong ahead of the upcoming season yet Red Bull and McLaren are the favourites.
Kimi Raikkonen will get the car tomorrow from Grosjean and it will be interesting to see how much pace the Finn can generate out of the car. Both Lotus drivers are relatively under experienced in terms that this is the debut season for Grosjean and Raikkonen
is coming back into Formula 1 after a two-year hiatus.
It will be an exceptional achievement if Lotus can come into the top 3 positions in the 2012 season. The team is looking to do just that and have set up a perfect launch pad with a reliable car combined with pace. It will be interesting to see how things
pan out for team once the season takes off.
The season begins with the Australian Grand Prix scheduled for March 18, 2012.
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