Lotus will work on its pit stops by Shanghai

Victorious in Melbourne, Australia, for the opening of the Formula 1 season, the Lotus team was not as comfortable in Sepang last weekend. Although both of its drivers finished in the points – Grosjean finished 6th just ahead of Räikkönen, the team has identified one of its weaknesses in Malaysia.

This concerns the execution of pit stops which did not prove as optimal as during the first race weekend, as explained by Paul Seaby, the team manager, on the team’s site: Inexplicably, we lost a bit of our rhythm during the weekend in Malaysia. On Friday, the practice sessions were as good as usual, but starting Saturday, we struggled to coordinate everything. The transition from wet to dry track, with the subsequent front wing adjustment, did not help us, but even taking that into account, it was not our best weekend.

The next Formula 1 race won’t take place for a little more than two weeks from now, in Shanghai, China, and the Lotus team intends to work specifically on pit stops at their Enstone factory: « We need to get back to work, put everyone through intensive training at Enstone, and work to return to our best level. It’s like a football team; if we’re good, we deserve congratulations, and if we’re not, we have to own it as a group, work together, and not make any more mistakes. »

The other objective of the British team for the next race will be to offer both of its drivers the same car, which was not the case in Malaysia because Kimi Räikkönen had new parts that Romain Grosjean did not: « One of the main objectives [for China, ed] is to ensure that both drivers have the most recent parts. In Malaysia, Romain ran without the latest exhaust specification and the accompanying bodywork, but there will also be other new features on both cars. »