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A tough season opener and a difficult start to the 2014 F1® season for
The Lotus F1® Team down-under
They always said it was going to be a dramatic first race in this new
era of F1® and dramatic it was. Melbourne’s Albert Park 3.3 mile circuit
provided the stage for top-flight motorsport entertainment that saw
Lotus put up a positive assault in what was always going to be a tough
race for the black and gold team.
Disappointing qualifying for both drivers meant whilst Pastor Maldonado
began at the very back of the grid, Romain Grosjean began from the
pit-lane and was then further slapped with a drive-through penalty for
leaving the pit garage early. Never-the-less, after lights out Maldonado
was soon on the march and ascended to P11 before problems with the Motor
Generator Unit - Kinetic (MGU-K) hampered his fight resulting in his
retirement in lap 29.
Grosjean faired marginally better in spite of the odds. A consistent
battle from lights-out saw him needle through the back of the field
ascending to P12. However, with just 12 laps to go MGU-K problems for
Romain Grosjean determined his retirement also.
Romain Grosjean DNF E22-03 “In a way, it was a pretty positive day. I
expected to do around 15 to 20 laps in the race after all the issues
we’ve had this weekend, and we managed 45! We’ve learnt a lot today and
all the changes made to the car have been positive. We still have a long
way to go, but at least I know more about tyre usage, all my engineers
know where we need to improve with the chassis, and we’ve learnt a lot
about aero balance and fuel consumption. Of course there's more to do
with the energy management and recovery and some work yet with the
braking. We’ve still got lots of work to do, but we’re definitely
heading in the right direction.”
Pastor Maldonado DNF E22-01 “It was obviously very disappointing, but if
you look at the positives we did more laps than in the pre-season which
is quite encouraging as we have more data which is very important for
making progress. We had a very negative free practice but we did plenty
of laps during the race which is very positive for the team. I'm looking
forward to the next race and we'll keep pushing.”
Frederico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: “Though the results do not
show it, everyone in the team has done a fantastic job in very
challenging circumstances. Both our cars finished with problems related
to the same MGU-K component so we and Renault F1 Sport both know where
we have to focus for our improvements heading to Malaysia. It’s clear we
also have other improvements to make, but the team spirit and resolve
has not diminished. We know what we have to do and we will do it.”
The next round of the competition see’s the team head to Malaysia and to
the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur on the 30th March.
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