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TUESDAY 1ST MAY 2012
Lotus F1 Team completed only morning session
running due to inclement weather on the first of
three days testing at the delightfully located
Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy.
Jérôme D’Ambrosio sampled the E20 for the first
time, completing 40 trouble free laps. Because
of today’s weather-induced reduced running,
Romain Grosjean will drive for the next two days
- contrary to the original plan of Kimi
Räikkönen running tomorrow and Romain only on
Thursday - due to the uncertain weather
predictions for the next two days.
Fast facts:
Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km
Chassis: E20-02
Weather: Raining with dry spells, air 16-24°C,
track 17-27°C
Programme: Aerodynamic work, sensor measurement
work, intermediate tyre running, medium slick
tyre running, rain contemplation.
Laps Completed: 40
Classification: 4th, 1’24"048
Interruptions: Rain and red flags.
What’s next? Romain Grosjean will take to the
wheel of the E20 for the next two days at
Mugello.
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, Lotus F1 Team Third Driver:
“It was great to finally get my hands on the E20
and I’d like to thank the team again for giving
me this opportunity. It’s a fantastic car and I
felt confident with it straight away, especially
in the dry. It’s a real shame we’ve been limited
by the weather today in terms of what we could
achieve, but we had known for a few days that
rain was forecast so it’s not a big shock. We
managed to complete 20 laps in both wet and dry
conditions which gives me a good knowledge of
the car and will help me be a better asset to
the team with this experience.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“It was not the most ideal day, but in spite of
the weather we managed to get some useful laps
on the board. Of course, it was the first taste
of the E20 for Jérôme who was very happy with
the car including his seating position and all
the controls. This is important, as it means he
will be much better prepared if called upon
again further into the season. The mixed
conditions, running intermediates to start and
then switching to the medium compound slicks,
also gives us a good base line for Romain over
the next two days. We’ve opted for one driver
for the next two days so we can make better use
of the time after losing this afternoon’s
running.”
James Allison, Technical Director:
“We had a busy programme lined up for Jérôme
including a fair amount of aerodynamic work,
sensor measurement work and of course preparing
foundations for Romain over the next two days.
We’ve been able to do some of that work in the
limited dry running that was available, but
there is now a lot more we need to fit in to
Wednesday and Thursday. The important thing is
we now have base line to build on, so the next
two days should be much more productive.”
WEDNESDAY 2ND MAY 2012
Lotus F1 Team set the pace at the second day of
testing at the Autodromo Internazionale del
Mugello in Italy, with a time of 1min 21.603s
set by Romain Grosjean early in the morning
session being the lap to beat. It was equalled
late in the day, but never bettered.
Fast facts:
Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km
Chassis: E20-02
Weather: Glorious sunshine, clouds, air 14-25°C,
track 15-37°C
Programme: Aerodynamic work, setup work, high
and medium fuel runs, data collection and
correlation, sun appreciation
Laps Completed: 97
Classification: 1st, 1:21.603
Interruptions: Red flags – no issues for team
What’s next? Romain Grosjean will take to the
wheel of the E20 tomorrow for the final day at
Mugello.
Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver:
“It’s always good to end the day on top, but we
have to remember that in testing lap times mean
very little. Having said that, the car felt
great and I was very comfortable from the start.
This test gives us an opportunity to try things
that we wouldn’t have time to do during a race
weekend, so hopefully it’ll help us to keep
pushing forward. We’ve done a lot of setup work
today, and for sure we’ll need to take some time
to look through all the data and analyse what we
need to focus on tomorrow, but it’s a good
baseline for the final day.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“Romain was very happy with the car straight
away. We made a couple of minor balance
adjustments to fine tune it for him after
Jérôme’s running yesterday and then went into
our test programme. Today we were concentrating
on different suspension setups, so we had a
fairly major change over lunch which took a
couple of hours. We’ve got some good data from
this which we’ll need to sit down and assess
tonight to decide what our strategy will be for
tomorrow; i.e. whether we re-test or stick with
what we’ve got. The car is working very well
here; we’ve run a variety of medium and high
fuel loads as we would at a race weekend to
assess the effects of the suspension change, and
we’re pleased with what we’ve seen. Overall, a
positive day.”
THURSDAY 3RD MAY 2012
Lotus F1 Team completed the final day of testing
at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in
Italy this afternoon, with Romain Grosjean the
fastest driver of the day. His best lap of 1min
21.035secs was also the fastest time of the
three day test.
Fast facts:
Track: Mugello, Italy, 5.25km
Chassis: E20-02
Weather: Cloudy with sunshine, air 14-24°C,
track 15-30°C
Programme: Aerodynamic work, setup work,
suspension configuration & evaluation, high and
medium fuel runs, data collection and
correlation
Laps Completed: 66
Classification: 1st, 1:21.035
Interruptions: Red flags – no issues for the
team
What’s next? The team heads to the Circuit de
Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix on May
11-13.
Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver:
“It was another nice day today so I have been
lucky with the weather here. We continued to
work on the car and have gained more valuable
data. We made a big change to the car at
lunchtime and everything went according to plan.
Mugello puts high demands on the driver so it’s
been a very good experience for me – and quite a
workout! We were conducting a specific programme
of evaluating components, so to be quick
relative to our opposition even when we were not
looking specifically to try to top the times is
satisfying. I’m happy at the progress we’ve made
here in Italy and looking forward to seeing how
well this translates into lap time when we get
to Barcelona.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“After looking at the data from yesterday, we
ran further back-to-back tests on our suspension
configurations. Track conditions were better
today as a result of yesterday’s running. We
stopped early for lunch so that we could change
the suspension and be out running straight away
in the afternoon session. In the afternoon we
also assessed some new floor updates applicable
for Barcelona, as well as a rear suspension
update fitted late in the day. After the rain on
the first day, it’s been a valuable two dry days
of testing. Mugello is quite hard on the tyres;
not in terms of degradation, but through the
high speed loadings generating heat. This has
taught us some interesting lessons applicable to
the rest of the season. Mugello is also an
excellent circuit for doing aerodynamic
evaluation, so it has been time well spent here.”
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