That Was Then, This Is Now

Lotus F1 Team returned to the track today for the first of four days testing at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain. Romain Grosjean took the wheel of the modified E20 completing 73 laps and setting the fastest time of the day.

Fast facts:

Track: Barcelona, Spain, 4.7km

Chassis: E20-01

Weather: Sunny, air 8-16°C, track 16-35°C

Programme: System checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, aero-focused runs, set-up changes

Laps Completed: 73

Classification: 1st, 1’23"252

Interruptions: KERS battery change

What’s next? Romain will be back in the car tomorrow running through a programme of set up work in the morning followed by race work in the afternoon.

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “The car was feeling very good and it’s great to bounce back from our dramas to set the fastest time of the day. It’s clear we have solved the problem we encountered and now we have to complete a very full test programme this week. The feeling in the team is fantastic and it’s like last week’s issues never happened. My crew told me that the problems would make us stronger, and this is true. The chassis is stronger, and all the team is stronger. We gathered good data today and we have a few interesting things that we would like to confirm tomorrow which should help us make a good step forwards.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “Our main target for today was to compress as much set-up work as we could into the first day as we are playing catch-up relative to our rivals at this track. Of course, we want to complete as many laps as possible, but this second objective is inevitably compromised somewhat by needing to make many short runs punctuated by set-up changes. Obviously, we’re very pleased to complete the day without any major difficulties to the car after such a troubled start here last week.”