Lotus aims to close on midfield quickly
Date published : 08 Jan 2010 - 17:45:02
Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne is hopeful the new team will be able to start challenging the bottom wrung of the grid's established outfits by the start of the European season in Spain in May.
The Norfolk-based squad, which is reviving the Lotus name in F1 after a 16-year absence and is backed by a consortium of Malaysian businessmen, has already set its sights on being the leading newcomer when the 2010 season kicks off in Bahrain in March.
Gascoyne is optimistic that, once the opening four flyaway rounds are completed, Lotus will then be able to get into the mix with the midfield teams, with a big car update already pencilled in for the Spanish Grand Prix.
We have said we are aiming to be ahead of the new teams when we all reach Bahrain, but we would also like to be pretty close to the midfield teams after the first few races of the season, he told the team's official website.
The update we have planned for Spain will see a boost in performance when we reach Barcelona which will give us the chance to start fighting with the slowest of the established teams which, given progress so far, has to be the next goal for us.
With pre-season testing finally permitted to begin in Valencia in just over three weeks' time, Gascoyne has confirmed that Lotus is set to join the group testing fray for the first time at Jerez in mid-February.
The Englishman says that such has been the speed of work at its factory since the team was handed the final place on the 2010 grid in September it is one week ahead of its original design schedule.
We had been looking at firing up our engine for the first time on 12th February, but with the efforts everyone's been putting in we have now been able to bring that forward to 5th February, Gascoyne said.
This is obviously a great boost for everyone involved in the team, and shows how much hard work has already gone in since we had our entry confirmed on September 12th.
With the engine fire up date now in the diary, we are also in a position to confirm that we will be on track for the first time at the third official test at Jerez from 17th February, and then at Barcelona from 25th February. We are also aiming to run chassis two for the last two days of that Barcelona test.
