Romain Grosjean believes that the Lotus is performing well and has greatly improved since last year. The team has worked particularly on the Coanda exhaust exits, which are now used by many teams: « We are more competitive than last year. We have greatly improved our traction. Everyone today uses the Coanda exits; it’s not for nothing. It provides a lot of downforce on the throttle and we exit corners better. »
Nevertheless, he asserts that the strategy will primarily focus on success in qualifications, possibly at the expense of consistency in the race: « Here, the compromise will favor qualifications. Many teams did long runs in free practice 2, which is very, very rare historically in Monaco. All the teams are afraid of the tire factor, but as far as we’re concerned and considering what happened: it’s fine. »
Since the beginning of the season, the Lotus has been a very gentle car on its tires during races, managing longer stints without losing too much performance. But in Monaco, where overtaking is difficult, Romain Grosjean knows it will be hard to take advantage of this benefit here: « Let’s not kid ourselves, it will be tough in Monaco. I won’t start 11th like in Barcelona to finish 3rd, well, that’s what the simulation said after 7 laps. But right from the start, the car is there, the feeling is too, after the first free practice we made some adjustments, and it’s a bit better. We have quite a few ideas that should theoretically save us lap time on Saturday. The idea is to get closer to pole position. We’ll see if it’s possible. We’re going to do everything we can anyway. »
The Frenchman was the only driver to hit the rails in F1 yesterday. He knows what happened and what shouldn’t be repeated and prefers to joke: “I brake late in the corner, I was already on my trajectory so I couldn’t choose to take the escape route. We know what happened and what shouldn’t be repeated but it’s not the kind of mistake that makes you lose confidence. We would have preferred to do the whole session and drive to the end but the car is there. The settings are there, the mechanics will fix everything: it’ll cost me a round on Sunday evening… well…”
From our special correspondent in Monaco
