Lotus – Bahrain: Better than the other Renault teams
The Lotus team completed its first winter testing session in Bahrain with the feeling that engine issues are affecting them less than other teams; at least that's what Nick Chester thinks.
Interviewed by our British colleagues from *Autosport*, Nick Chester, technical director of Lotus, reflected on the first private testing session in which the Enstone team participated, in Bahrain. He took the opportunity to assert that Lotus is struggling less than other Renault-supplied teams, while acknowledging a delay compared to Mercedes-powered structures.
He even claims that Lotus, in light of these tests, is on the verge of becoming the leading team for the brand with the diamond: « I think we could be Renault’s leading team. It certainly hasn’t gone badly this week compared to other Renault-powered teams, and I know they have some issues. »
Remarks that are reminiscent of those made by Gérard Lopez last January for Auto Motor und Sport: « Lotus is not just a client at Renault. Therefore, we tried to agree that it would be more than just an engine supplier. » The history between Enstone and Viry-Châtillon began in 1995, when Benetton, which had taken Michael Schumacher to his first title, formed a partnership with Renault, leading both brands to the constructors’ title that season.
However, the satisfaction of being “the least in trouble” among the Renault teams is relative because the work needed to catch up with a significant delay compared to other teams is not small: « Even if we are the best team powered by Renault, we still have to push and catch up with the others, so we just have to focus on ourselves and move forward, » admits Chester.
Nick Chester has no illusions: « It’s going to be difficult in Melbourne, that’s for sure ». However, he believes that the difference in the respective progress margins of the different teams could allow for making up the gap relatively quickly: « But [Mercedes] had two very good sessions and they are at a good level while we still have a lot of room for improvement. So, I don’t imagine they will make that much progress before Melbourne and we have a lot to do. But there is still a big gap to close. »
More precisely, the difficulties of the Renault V6 Turbo engine are mainly related to the software and not the hardware: « There is a lot to be done in terms of operation and software, and we ran the engine at full capacity for the first time today only. So, there is a lot to be done in how to operate it and in how to monitor energy management, which will improve fairly quickly. »
For the record, Lotus completed 111 laps of the Sakhir circuit during these four days of testing in Bahrain, which represents 600.7 km, equivalent to almost two Grand Prix (about 305 km). You can find our full summary of the Bahrain tests.
