Team Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne targeting points from Spanish Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Team Lotus’ technical chief Mike Gascoyne is optimistic that his team will start scoring points from the Spanish Grand Prix, which will take place on Sunday, May 22, 2011.
The team will bring some major upgrades before heading to Spain, including an introduction of the blown-diffuser.
Gascoyne stated, “Our major update is coming along for Barcelona, which will be a major update for the diffuser and the rear end of car. It will bring quite a lot of performance to the car, and we've got some other smaller updates for Barcelona [too]. And
then also smaller updates for Turkey as well.”
Commenting on the team’s performance, Gascoyne said, “In general we are reasonably pleased. We had four out of six finishes and showed good pace in the races – China especially. We qualified very well in Malaysia, very close to the teams in front.”
One thing which did not please team Lotus was the performance of their car on shorter stints. Both drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen struggled during the qualifiers, especially in cooler track conditions.
However, Gascoyne claimed that the issues have been resolved and the drivers will get better results in qualifying from now onwards. The first three races of the season did not have much gap in between them, but the teams have some time to improve ahead
of the Turkish Grand Prix.
Lotus were the best team amongst all the newcomers in 2010. One of the main reasons was their experienced drivers. However, the team failed to score its maiden points in any of the race last year and the opening three races of the ongoing 2011 season.
Prior to the new season, Lotus targeted to finish in top eight of the constructors’ championship, challenging the likes of Force India, Williams, Sauber and Toro Rosso. However, things did not work out exactly as planned for the team and they are still eying
their first points finish in Formula 1.
Things are not out of hand of any team yet, as there are plenty of races to come in the season. The teams ahead of Lotus have been unable to score too many points, which is keeping the hopes alive for Trulli and his teammate to catch up. Both drivers have
the potential to end up in points consistently once they get a strong car.
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