Lotus: Teams like McLaren are “catchable”
Alan Permane, the track operations director at Lotus, explains the difficult start to the season for his team. He mentions the unresolved issues regarding the E22. However, he believes that once the problems are resolved, the Enstone team could once again compete outside of Red Bull and Mercedes.
After an encouraging 11th place for Romain Grosjean at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Alan Permane asserts that his team does not intend to stop there and that they are not on the grid just to make up the numbers. He reminds Autosport: « Racing for 10th place is not our goal, but when you see where teams like McLaren are, they are certainly catchable.
According to him, the situation is not as critical as it seems, and the gap with the teams ahead of Lotus is not that large: « We have many problems with the power unit, but we can react and although we are far behind, there isn’t much missing. It will be very difficult to catch up with Red Bull and Mercedes, but I’m sure we could regularly find ourselves in Q3 and score some good points. »
The Enstone team believes they can unlock the potential of their car by collaborating with the Viry-Châtillon engine manufacturer: « We know what to do to improve the situation on the power unit side and we are working hard with Renault in this regard. But it’s not just the power unit; we also have issues with the brake-by-wire system because we haven’t used it much and are just discovering it now. We still have some tests to conduct in Enstone and we hope to learn much more about it. »
Developments are already planned for the upcoming Grand Prix: « We will take a step forward at the next race, another in China, and yet another in Barcelona, so things are progressing. »
The last few weeks have been a nightmare for Lotus. He admits: « We could never have been in a more difficult situation, it’s very, very tough for everyone. All the engineers and mechanics are putting in a huge amount of overtime at the Enstone factory, and it’s heartbreaking not to see the car on track after all the work done. »
He concludes by highlighting the commitment and work of the team staff in adversity. He states: “We have a group of people who know how to keep their heads down and move forward. There is no magic button. The only way to get out of trouble is to keep your head down and work.”
