20 November 2010

Abu Dhabi tyre test day two

The final day of on-track action of the 2010 season saw Lotus Racing’s Jarno Trulli enjoy his first taste of the new Pirelli tyres at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. As the whole paddock was busy packing up to head home for the winter break Jarno completed a total of 83 laps, recording a quickest time of 1.44.521.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-02): “It’s been a very positive day. It was good to try the Pirelli tyres for the first time and while we have obviously got a lot of work ahead of us I think this was a good start. We will need to focus on the driveability of the tyres – on performance they were good, but we will need to work together in a clear direction to maximise the handling of the car. The hard compounds were pretty consistent, a little less so with the softs, but we have gathered a lot of data that will play an important part in the development of next year’s car. Now the season is over I want to thank the whole team for their work this year – we have finished where we wanted to be and everyone in the team has played their part in helping us reach our goals, so thank you to them and the fans for everything this year.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus Racing Chief Technical Officer: “Another successful day for us and a successful conclusion to both the test with Pirelli and the year in general. My thanks to Jarno for his work today – he gave us some excellent feedback which will give us valuable data for the development of the 2011 car. As this is the last run for the T127 I also want to thank the whole team for all their efforts in what has been a fantastic year and thank all our fans for giving us such great support throughout the season. Now we look ahead to 2011 and we are all excited about taking the next step forward with the new package in what is certain to be another very exciting chapter in our story.”

Lotus Racing now head home to take some well earned rest after an incredible season in Formula One™ in which the Anglo-Malaysian squad achieved its primary goal of finishing as best of the new teams. A busy winter beckons preparing for the 2011 season, but for now it is goodbye to the FIA Formula One™ World Championship 2010.