24 July 2011

Team Lotus; comments on the German Formula One Grand Prix 2011

Friday, 22 July 2011

Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - Chassis T128-04: "I'm pleased with today's performance - that was one of the good Fridays. We completed more laps than anyone else out there and the car has felt good all day. I can feel that we have made a decent improvement to the back of the car which helped us find a good balance pretty early on and it was working well on both tyre compounds, so this goes down as a good day's work."

Karun Chandhok, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: "That was good day of learning. The main area I've been looking at is the brakes - we use a different material here to my previous team so I think that's why I've maybe ended up with quite a lot of square tyres today! I had a few moments under braking, and a couple of lock-ups, but that's what today was about - getting used to the tyres and the brakes and easing myself into a place where I can start to push. Over the day I improved my time from this morning by over 1.5 seconds, so I'm pleased with that, and now I'll work with the engineers to find more time and keep pushing forwards tomorrow."

Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: "The main challenge here is to work on the driveability of the engines. We need to find a good top speed for the long straight and couple that with strong traction out of the slow and medium speed corners, and after having completed so many laps we have a very decent amount of data to work on to give the drivers the best package we can. We also wanted to make sure Karun could run as much as possible on different fuel loads and get used to the different engine maps, so the fact he completed so much mileage means this has been a good day all round."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "A pretty useful first day where we were able to complete the programmes on both cars and make sure Karun completed a decent number of laps. He was obviously on a steep learning curve so we wanted to give him a chance to work on the tyres, both over a single lap and on long runs and he acquitted himself very well in both sessions. He and Heikki were struggling to warm up the front tyres, especially on the harder compound, but we can work on that and look forward to tomorrow."

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "I am delighted with how today has gone, both in terms of the mileage we completed and the fact that both Karun and Heikki have performed so well. Karun has done exactly what we needed him to do - learn as much as possible, avoid any mistakes and ease himself into his race weekend. There is definitely more to come from him in pace and he can be pleased with how well he has grabbed the opportunity he has here in Germany. It is also good to see that the work that has been going on at the factory to resolve the reliability issues that befell us at the last race appears to have eradicated those problems, so now we have to make sure we have another strong Saturday and look forward to seeing both cars cross the line on Sunday."

Saturday, 23 July 2011
No comments

Sunday, 24 July 2011

Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - Chassis T128-04: "I think that was a pretty good race. For me everything was working well in the car but honestly it was a bit lonely out there! We're not quite with the guys ahead, and we're well clear of the teams behind, so I wanted to make sure I could push as hard as possible over the full race distance, not make any mistakes and get the car home in one piece. We are progressing in the right direction, and it will take time to be able to really fight with the guys in front, but we'll get there."

Karun Chandhok, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: "That's a full race distance completed and an awful lot of learning under my belt. Honestly, that probably wasn't the race I wanted -I had a couple of high speed spins and I think I need more time to get used to the tyres. When they start to go off there's very little give compared to last year's rubber, but that's all part of the learning process and I'm glad I got the car home and did the best job I could."

Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: "From the engine perspective I think we are pretty pleased. The feedback we have had from the drivers has been good - we wanted to maximise the driveability of the engine, especially in the wet conditions, and according to the data we amassed we managed to achieve that. Karun did a good job in very tough conditions - it is not easy to jump straight into the car and be able to extract maximum performance, but he adapted well to the strategies we gave him and has definitely taken a lot on board."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "Good to get both cars home over the line. Heikki had good pace, particularly on the options and he was able to keep up with the cars ahead throughout most of the race. Karun acquitted himself pretty well, despite having a couple of moments he got on with the job and has definitely learnt a lot from his time in the car here this weekend. The whole team has worked very hard to make sure we could have a two car finish, so well done to them and now we can move straight on to Hungary where the aim will be the same - progress little by little and keep moving forward."

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "The main aim today was to bring two cars home and to make sure Karun could learn as much as possible over a full race distance. It is good that he finished the full 60 laps and showed some reasonable pace and I am very pleased with Heikki's speed on the options - we obviously have a lot of work to do but this is another platform to build on, so overall I am pretty happy."