Vitaly Petrov uncertain about Lotus Renault's performance in 2011
Lotus Renault's driver, Vitaly Petrov, has stated that it will be too early to judge the performance of his car for the 2011 Formula 1 season. He claimed that the team will need to do a lot more testing in order to find out its exact standing.
Lotus Renault had some mixed performances during the first two pre-season tests at Valencia and Jerez. The team ended-up being the fastest on the final day of testing at Jerez, courtesy some strong lap times by veteran Nick Heidfeld.
Robert Kubica was also quick at Valencia when he was behind the wheels of his car. He was fastest on the last day of testing in Valencia. However, the Pole suffered a severe accident while rallying in Italy, which cost him his spot in the 2011 Formula 1
season.
Although the team was quick compared to other teams during testing, there were a lot of reliability issues especially with Petrov.
The Russian stated, “We've still not found the limit or something close to it. I didn't do many laps. I had a lot of problems with brakes, KERS and leaks so I didn't run so much. For me it's very difficult to compare how it is. I didn't push.”
Petrov was not happy with the problems he had with the brakes. He said that the team had a similar problem in 2010, which cost them lot of points and having the same problem again will not be an ideal situation. He further added that he suffered from rear
locking while breaking, which causes the rear tyres to heat up and after a few laps. This causes the tyres lose grip and eventually speed suffers.
Lotus Renault has been good on the shorter tracks but there is a question mark over their performance on the longer runs. Whenever the team has tried to test its setup for longer runs, the car has failed to live up to expectations.
There are a lot of expectations from Lotus Renault for the 2011 season as the team has been in the news for its aggressive design. However, their unique exhaust system has been plagued by over heating problems.
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