Lotus is confident for the rest of the season

For Alan Permane, this good result in Bahrain calls for others, and he is confident that the drivers and the car will perform well on all the circuits listed on the 2012 World Championship calendar.

« There is no doubt. We have shown encouraging results and we had said it would come. » he explains to our colleagues at Autosport. « We have proven that the car is fast and I think we can be fast anywhere. We know our weaknesses; low speeds, traction, and other things, but we are very happy with the car at high and medium speeds. »

We will therefore need to continue developing the car to minimize these weaknesses as much as possible in order to remain competitive throughout the season. And the double podium in Bahrain is undeniably a big boost for the team’s motivation after three somewhat frustrating races.

« Sometimes things don’t work out. This weekend went well and we didn’t have any issues. There was a gamble with the tire strategy, but it worked, » explains Eric Boullier.

To the question of why the E20 performed so well in Bahrain, Boullier thinks that « The weather and temperatures were better for us and our car. »

« I think that during the first three races we tried to put everything together and make everything work, which is never easy when you start the season and when you change both drivers. But today, everyone is starting to get to know each other and work better. Moreover, our two drivers were not in F1 during the last two years. They needed time to regain their sensations.

At the end of the race, Kimi Räikkönen almost apologized for not managing to overtake Sebastian Vettel while Romain Grosjean is already hoping to erase Olivier Panis’s name from the record books by becoming the first Frenchman to win since Monaco 1996. The ambition is there, now it’s just a matter of staying on course.