03/05/2013
NEWS STORY
Coming to Europe with second position in both the Constructors' and Drivers' Championship shows that Lotus F1 Team is performing well, but it's no time for complacency says Team Principal Eric Boullier.
The team currently holds P2 in both championships; what's the secret to sustaining that challenge?
Eric Boullier: The secret? Good strategy, a good car and two good drivers! Achieving a one-off result is one thing, but keeping momentum is a far bigger challenge and I'm pleased to say we're doing a great job of that so far this year. It's such a finely balanced and competitive season. If we look to our most recent race in Bahrain, on Saturday it looked like maybe we had lost our edge having qualified below expectations. Fortunately, we were always confident in our race pace and that confidence proved to be well placed.
The race in Bahrain was a pretty special one for the team: do you ever get a feeling of deja vu?
EB: It was just like in 2012! Having Kimi second and Romain third was a great result, but just like in 2012 there was Sebastian [Vettel] on the top step. This year's result was much more difficult, especially after our qualifying performance, but we showed flashes of pace throughout the weekend and confirmed that speed when it mattered in the race. To come away with a double podium when the top six would maybe have been a more realistic pre-race target was a great performance from everybody involved. There was a pretty special feeling in the race team and that was just magnified when I got back to Enstone to see everyone in the factory. It was a well-deserved result.
Kimi is right there in the Drivers' Championship battle...
EB: Kimi is a fantastic driver and you can never rule him out in any race. In Bahrain, he drove a strong race to manage the tyres and was comfortable in second by the chequered flag. In Australia he won the race and said it was one of his easiest wins. We want to ensure he has more easy races in the future.
How pleasing was it to see Romain back on the podium?
EB: Very. Consistency has been there already for him in the first three races, but I think fighting at the front again will come as a big relief to him after a difficult start to the year. His season really starts now.
What's been the secret to unlocking his pace?
EB: We sat down with Romain to assess where things weren't quite working and the team did a good job to find a few little things which helped him get back that positive feeling with the car again. He clearly enjoyed every second on track in last race - making a solid start and pulling off some strong overtaking moves - and I think that enjoyment showed in his performance.
When could the next win come for the team?
EB: We always want to win and our podium successes this year seem to have made us all the more hungry to taste the champagne. We know we are facing other equally competitive teams and only one team and driver get to stand on that top step at each race. Of course, it would be fantastic to start our European season with a win.
There's always a lot of talk about the development battle; are you confident the team can match the pace of improvement of the other teams?
EB: This is just another aspect of the sport. We have a strong development programme for the E21 and I'm confident we can continue to improve it through the year, just as we did with the E20 before it. Most teams tend to bring a fairly major upgrade package to the first European race of the season and we'll be no exception. I'm very pleased with how the development of the this car is progressing and I think there's plenty more to come from us.
After a double podium in Bahrain, Technical Director James Allison looks optimistically towards Barcelona; a circuit with many similarities to the successful hunting ground of Sakhir!
What's the technical view heading to the first European race of the season?
James Allison: We're pretty well placed. Barcelona is similar in many regards to Bahrain; it's hard on the tyres with some challenging fast stuff thrown in. It's not so obviously rear-limited as Bahrain, but is nevertheless a circuit that challenges the tyres which has been a strength of the E21 thus far. That said, the start of the so-called European season - where many teams unleash a raft of their latest upgrades - could shake up the order somewhat.
Talking of developments; what do we have in the upgrade cupboard for Catalunya?
JA: Nothing revolutionary, but plenty which should help us go faster. We have new front wing endplate detailing, new aero around the rear drums, modifications to the diffuser and a different top rear wing so there's plenty to help keep us in the hunt.
The tyre allocation for Barcelona is different from the past two seasons and the hard compound has been revised: your thoughts?
JA: We've used Pirelli's hard and soft compounds for the last few years, so we were slightly surprised to see them opt for the more conservative hard and medium this season; albeit with the hard compound revised from what we have been using so far in 2013. The new hard is akin to last year's rubber; giving its best grip at lower temperatures than the one we started the year with and being more in line with the working range of the other compounds in use this season. It should work well for us in the race and the gap between option and prime in qualifying should be smaller than in previous years, giving more choices about how to tackle Q1 and Q2.
What are the performance considerations for this race?
JA: Spain is certain to be cooler than Bahrain, but it's not that dissimilar. It's a circuit where the outcome of the race isn't only determined by whether you're on pole position, but rather by a combination of how far up the grid you are, how good your car is on race pace, how you manage the tyres and your race strategy. In pre-season we did one of the best race simulation runs at the final Barcelona test. but it's always difficult to tell what everyone's doing in testing and that was a good few months ago now.
It's fair to say that the teams are pretty familiar with Barcelona: how does this affect things?
JA: The familiarity means you're not hunting around for things like ride heights, weight distributions, aero balance or roll stiffness as you know roughly where you want to be and it's a matter of fine tuning rather than finding your feet from scratch. That said, we know all of the circuits pretty well!
What went wrong in qualifying in Bahrain?
JA: We didn't manage to reproduce our Q2 time and although Kimi felt he'd produced a decent lap. It's so close at the front that just the smallest margin can make that difference; a slight temperature difference from the track, a small variation between sets of tyres, a change in wind direction or force, or the way a driver prepares the tyres on the out-lap can all be a factor. Fortunately it was at a track where the net result was unchanged; a podium looked possible from the front row or elsewhere.
Romain had a much better race in Bahrain - can this be sustained?
JA: We're confident that the step forward in Bahrain was genuine, and is something we can continue in future races to allow Romain to show what he's got.
What can we realistically expect in Barcelona?
JA: With our pre-season form at the circuit and our reasonably useful showing at all four races so far this season, we head to Spain hopeful of a good race.