Lotus will be bringing upgrades to Valencia and a whole new chassis for Jarno Trulli, and technical chief Mike Gasgoyne reckons it all might be enough to out-qualify a Sauber, push the Williams and maybe race the Renaults.
Seems a bit optimistic, but it would be great to see the Lotus green in Q2.
Here’s some more from Gasgoyne, including a nice tale about how team oriented the Lotus drivers are:
“Jarno has been pretty unhappy with the balance of his car and has been struggling,” Gascoyne told AUTOSPORT. “We have a new chassis scheduled to come for Valencia, and that was due to go to Heikki.
“But, because of Jarno’s troubles, I made the call to change it to him. But Jarno, when he was told, said, ‘No, I don’t want Heikki to feel that I am being favoured, please feel free to give it to Heikki.’
“So I went up to Heikki and told him. Then he said, ‘No, Jarno is struggling, give it to him!’
“It’s a situation that sums up the great feeling within the team – that they are both trying to help each other. In the end we are going to give it to Jarno, but the two drivers are open to swapping it around afterwards.”
[snip]
“From the whole of the Canada weekend, the message is that it is time we stopped looking at being the best of the new teams and looking behind us,” he said.
“This is now about trying to outqualify a Sauber – trying to race the Williams and the Renault cars. It is about being a midfield team not just the best of the new boys. I think that is the statement we have made this weekend.”
[snip]
“I would say in reality we are probably seven or eight tenths away from them, and the Silverstone upgrade might bring us half a second closer. Will we nick places off people consistently? Probably not, but with the two drivers we have got, with their experience – if anyone drops the ball or doesn’t get the right lap then I think we can start nicking some odd places.”
Gasgoyne sounds pretty realistic to me, and you certainly have to have goals to push the team. But are those goals realistic?
Your View: Can Lotus move firmly into the mid-pack these season and get clear of the other two “new” teams?
