Lotus thrilled by 'very successful' debut

Date published : 17 Feb 2010 - 18:19:46

Mike Gascoyne believes Lotus enjoyed a very successful group testing debut with its T127 after its new car completed 76 largely trouble-free laps at Jerez.Five days on from the official launch of the revived team's 2010 glittering green and yellow car, Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy took it out for its first spin alongside Formula 1's established teams shortly after the third pre-season test got underway in damp conditions on Wednesday.Despite supplier issues meaning Fauzy had to manage without the aid of power steering in the often tricky conditions, the team's test driver completed Lotus's scheduled programme including systems checks and initial reliability evaluations and set a best time of 1m31.848s.The team ended the day ahead of fellow newcomer Virgin at the bottom of the times and chief technical officer Gascoyne was delighted with both Fauzy's contribution and the general performance of the car out of the box.It's been an excellent day for the whole team, he said. Firstly I want to say a big thank you to Fairuz who did an excellent job today with the first proper day of running. With so much going on, such as doing systems checks, it can be a pretty disjointed day for the driver. When you add into that the changeable conditions, and also the fact we were running without power steering today, it could have been a tricky day for Fairuz but he didn't put a foot wrong so well done to him and a big thank you.With the car we had no major reliability issues a few niggles with overheating which were quickly solved and then the car ran pretty faultlessly. The power steering issue will be fixed for tomorrow so all in all a very successful first day and a busy evening ahead preparing the car for tomorrow.Fauzy himself felt he had acquitted himself well despite the lack of power steering and was pleased to have completed the necessary mileage to gain his FIA super licence. First of all I want to thank the team. To arrive here and complete 76 laps is fantastic, said the Malaysian, who was competing in his first F1 test session since testing for Spyker three years ago.It was a big challenge, both to complete the 300kms I need for the Super Licence, and with no power steering it was difficult to drive in the dry, not so bad in the wet, so I was driving a bit conservatively but I am just very pleased.Race driver Heikki Kovalainen takes over the T127 for the next two days, with team-mate Jarno Trulli in the car for Saturday's final day.