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Lotus
Starts: 58
First GP: Australia 2012
Wins: 2
Best qualifying position: 2nd
Fastest laps: 5
2014 championship position: 8th
The E23 is a far better car
than last year's already
“It probably won’t be recapturing its
racewinning form of 2012 and 2013, but
expect a much better year from Lotus”
SEASON
L
ROMAIN GROSJEAN
8
Age:
28
Starts:
64
First GP:
Europe 2009
Best finish:
2nd
Best qualifying position:2nd
Fastest laps:
1
2014 position:
14th
PASTOR MALDONADO
There are times when Maldonado
drives like a madman, making very
strange mistakes that can lead to
some embarrassing crashes and
collisions. But he is also capable of
being very fast, so when he strings
everything together there is the
potential for strong finishes. Just don’t
expect him to be Mr Consistency.
DUNBAR/LAT
XPB IMAGES
13
Age:
29
Starts:
76
First GP:
Australia 2011
Wins:
1
Poles:
1
Fastest laps:
0
2014 position:
16th
As we saw in the second half of
2013, when he was Sebastian Vettel’s
nearest challenger, Grosjean is
capable of being one of the very best
drivers in F1. And I think that, given
how poor the car was, he did a very
good job last season. If the car has a
sniff of strong results, Grosjean will
be able to deliver them.
Switch to Mercedes power
Xx
should pay big dividends
xx
WorldMags.net
Team is starting to gel
after 2014 reshuffles
MARCH 5 2015 AUTOSPORT.COM 63
PREVIEW
ast year was terrible for Lotus, but there
were clear reasons why it was struggling
and it seems that the worst of it is over.
There was so much change last year, with
lots of key personnel leaving, which
always has an effect: even if you replace
them with the right people, it takes time
for things to bed down and gel.
During testing the car has looked pretty good,
albeit not as good as some of those very fast laps
on super-soft tyres suggest! So I would expect to
see Lotus making a good step, at least to be near
the front of the battle of what you might call the
second group of teams behind the ‘works’ squads.
You can see a lot of the progress that Lotus has
made in the design of the car. It’s a much more
coherent package, with far tidier bodywork
around the sidepods and the rear. This will
partly be because of the switch of engine
supplier, and partly down to better design work.
But the big change is that Lotus is now
powered by Mercedes. This makes a huge
difference. When running the troublesome
Renault engine last year, Lotus struggled to get
it to perform consistently, which on top of a car
that seemed to have different aerodynamic
characteristics almost from second to second
often made it impossible to drive. With the
Mercedes, there is every indication that this
is a far more driver-friendly package.
In terms of resources, there’s no reason why
Lotus cannot get into the battle for fourth, fifth
or sixth in the constructors’ championship,
which is exactly where it should be.
It probably won’t be recapturing its
racewinning form of 2012 and 2013, but you
can expect a much better year from Lotus.
63
Lotus-Mercedes E23