8 February 2012

Reliability demonstrated during the second day of testing at Jerez

The Lotus F1 Team E20 demonstrated its reliability during the second day of testing at Jerez, completing 117 laps as the team continued its initial assessment of the car with Kimi Räikkönen at the wheel.

Fast facts:

Track: Jerez, Spain, 4.4km
Chassis: E20-01
Weather: Sunny, air 5-12°C, track 6-17°C
Programme: System checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package.
Laps Completed: 117
Classification: 5th, 1’20"239.
Interruptions: Repairs from kerb damage, steering rack change.
What’s next? Romain Grosjean will get his first taste of the E20 tomorrow continuing with set-up work and longer runs.

Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “There was a small issue with damage to the floor this morning when I went off and came back on to the circuit. An edge on a kerb caused the damage and we lost some time as it was repaired. Apart from that it was a good day and we completed some long runs and good mileage. Physically, I felt fine after 117 laps. Conditions were quite windy on track but despite this I got a better feeling from the car. There was a lot of difference between the tyres. We used three compounds, but it was hard to get all of them working with the cooler temperatures today. When the tyres are working we seem to have a good car and I have a positive feeling from this first test. ”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “We had an interruption this morning with a slight off from Kimi which caused some damage to the car. This gave us an opportunity with the car in the garage to change the specification of steering rack, so we lost a reasonable amount of time in the morning. The E20 ran reliably for the rest of the day, meaning we were able to complete most of our planned programme. We looked at set-up, using the medium and soft tyres. We ran long runs in the afternoon, including a final run on the hard tyre, to gain mileage and everything worked very well. The balance is good which is encouraging from a performance perspective and the E20 was reliable again. All specifications of tyres are behaving as we would expect with the E20 so this is another area of encouragement.”