Romain Grosjean happy but modest in his praise of Lotus E20 – Formula 1 news
Romain Grosjean has said that the Lotus E20 is an impressive car but cannot be hailed as a winner just yet.
Grosjean said that Lotus is in a strong position and looks to be on the right track. He took over the fastest lap time from his teammate Kimi Raikkonen though the test excludes the time set by Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher driving the 2011 Mercedes.
The expected favourites to top the charts were Red Bull’s RB8, Ferrari’s F2012 and McLaren’s MP4-27 but all three cars have had its difficulties and do not look like the complete package.
Whereas Lotus has looked much more complete and ready for the season, although Grosjean said that it is early times to speculate where Lotus stands against the other teams.
“Sure it's better to be first than last - that's clear - but we can't draw complete qualy from the testing,” Grosjean said. “But the main thing is the car is quite good, I enjoyed the day a lot which is the main thing. And the car is good to drive, that's
the first good information. It's reliable as well, which is good, so we're trying to keep working and keep improving ourselves and see what we can do until the first qualifier in Melbourne.”
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton also had praise for the E20 and said that time set by Grosjean looked to be a good time for a qualifier although it depends how low on fuel they were running the car.
Grosjean said that he was not going to let in on how much fuel they were running the car on, but said that it was enough to run the car.
Grosjean drove last year’s Lotus car as well and said that the E20 was much more predictable and the car can be trusted a lot more. The car can be pushed to the limit because of it and the team is quite happy with the results it has gotten from the test
so far.
The true picture of where the car stands among others on the grid will be on display when the season begins in mid March.
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