Gascoyne proud of Lotus efforts

Date published : 28 Feb 2010 - 22:01:51

Lotus technical boss Mike Gascoyne says he is already very proud of what the new team has achieved even though it remains a long way off the pace. Drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen do not expect to threaten the established teams in the reincarnated Lotus squad's first season, but the team has managed to complete plenty of mileage in the two tests it made it to, and suffered relatively few teething problems. While Gascoyne acknowledged that the car was not quick enough, he emphasised the scale of Lotus's achievement in getting the T127 on track and running smoothly in just five months from its 2010 entry getting the go-ahead from the FIA. "Considering the length of time we've had to work on the project it's a fantastic effort from the whole team," he said. "Everyone has worked exceptionally hard over the two tests and we now have to work on the pace of the car and improve that, but it's been a tremendous effort from the whole team and I'm very proud of them." Lotus did have a few gremlins today in its final run with Kovalainen, but still out-paced fellow newcomer Virgin and completed more mileage than its nearest rival. "It was a game of two halves as they say; we had a good morning where we were able to complete all our plans but a problem with the programme change on the gearbox delayed us in the afternoon, which meant we weren't able to do as much running as we wanted," Gascoyne explained. "Overall, however, the test has been extremely productive - in general we've had very good reliability, and the team is in very good shape going to the first race."