Renault: Lotus is a victim of its lack of preparation
Lotus did not have a good time at the last Grand Prix in Melbourne, as both E22s had to retire due to an identical failure on the MGU-K. According to Renault, Lotus is penalized by the delay taken during winter testing.
It’s a fact, Lotus did very little running during the winter. Absent in Jerez, then present during the two test sessions in Bahrain but completing very few laps, the Enstone team started its season in Melbourne with very little knowledge of its car. Beyond the two retirements in the race, Lotus had a difficult weekend, struggling to get its drivers running during the practice and qualifying sessions.
Remi Taffin, Operations Director at Renault F1, states in the columns of Autosport that Lotus is paying the price for delayed preparation: “We lack running with Lotus and therefore we lack experience and knowledge of this car, it’s as simple as that. Even on our side, we lack experience in integrating the power unit. To be completely honest, we are tackling the problems one by one.”
The problems have been numerous for Renault: « The car was assembled very late, we experienced issues with the power unit, the mapping, and we encountered problems affecting the driving. »
The priority was therefore given to track time in order to gain as much experience as possible; performance will naturally follow: « We have been deliberately cautious with Lotus because we wanted to gain mileage, but unfortunately, we had this issue with the MGU-K (kinetic energy recovery system). Without this failure, the cars would have finished very close to the top 10. In Sepang [note: next Grand Prix in Malaysia], we will run with the same settings as during the race in Melbourne; we know they work, and we want to see the cars run. It’s not yet a matter of competing for tenths of a second; if we accumulate track time, lap times will improve. We just need to do things in order. »
