How Lotus Recovered from Testing Nightmare to Score First Championship Points

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: May 14, 2014

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Romain Grosjean finished eighth at the 2014 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix to give Lotus their first four points of the season.

At this point last year, they had 111.

It's a remarkable fall from grace for the Enstone team, but one which was not entirely unexpected.

The loss of lead driver Kimi Raikkonen (who had 85 of those 111 points) was always going to be costly, as were other key departures including technical director James Allison (May 2013), head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer (September 2013) and team principal Eric Boullier (January 2014).

Talk about the team's financial stability refused to go away throughout the winter months, and when they announced they were missing the first pre-season test because the car would not be ready, the outlook seemed even bleaker.



Grosjean's points finish in Spain was significant. It highlighted a substantial step forward for the team after four races in which they finished no higher than 11th.

It also drew attention to something many expert observers, including Autosport's Craig Scarborough (subscription required), noticed as soon as the car appeared at the first Bahrain test—that the E22 is, fundamentally, a very good car with a lot of potential.

Of course, until now, they haven't had a chance to show it.

The biggest problem was a lack of running. With such substantial changes to the regulations—including the new hybrid power units, reduced downforce levels, new nose position requirements and a new range of tyres from Pirelli—getting in track time ahead of the season to understand the new car was vital.

But Lotus didn't manage much at all. Missing the first test was only the start of their issues as they struggled more than any team to integrate the problematic new Renault power train at tests two and three.

If the car wasn't stuck in the garage being worked on, it was stoppin...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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