Lotus confident of improving T127 pace
Date published : 26 Feb 2010 - 11:52:08
Mike Gascoyne says he has been content with Lotus's first five days of testing with its T127 and is confident the team will now be able to start upping its headline pace as pre-season reaches its climax.The revived squad joined the group testing fray at Jerez last week and despite a few inevitable teething problems enjoyed impressive levels of reliability straight away, with the team primarily running the T127 on heavy fuel over longer runs.After following a similar programme on the opening day at Barcelona on Thursday, Lotus technical chief Gascoyne says the main aim for the final three days will be to ensure there are no major reliability concerns heading to Bahrain.However, he says that with more attention now turning to set-up work, it is also looking to improve the car's baseline pace something he is confident there is plenty of potential to do.First and foremost, we want to get more mileage on the car and to sort out any possible reliability issues before Bahrain, he told the official F1 website.We will be shaking down some new gearboxes and components, and hopefully with some dry running, we can start to work on the performance of the car. In Jerez and on for the first day in Barcelona, we were concentrating on mileage, but now we will start to look for set-up directions, and of course we will try to improve the pace of the car. We are very happy with where the car is. We know we need to make it faster, and we are working in the wind tunnel to do that. But overall I think we have the pace of a very good Formula 1 car.Given the Malaysian-backed outfit was only granted a place on the 2010 grid last September, the team has faced a race against time to build up its workforce and infrastructure in a bid to get its first challenger ready to roll out for testing.Gascoyne, who has recruited former colleagues from both Renault and Toyota as Lotus's staff numbers have been bolstered to 160, admits he is delighted with the relaxed atmosphere which has developed already at the Norfolk-based outfit.We have a great spirit within the team and that is one of the advantages of setting up a new team from scratch, he admitted. You don't inherit any politics, and I think we have been able to recruit a very experienced team, with a lot of people I've worked with before. The spirit within the team has been fantastic and everybody seems to enjoy working with us. I must be careful not to smile too much - I might lose my Rottweiler' nickname.
