Romain Grosjean says the new Lotus E23 feels more like the race-winning car of 2013 than last year’s design.
Kimi Raikkonen won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in the E21 two years ago, while Grosjean took a number of podiums as Lotus emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger at the time. Last season, however, the team produced an uncompetitive car which was also hampered by the underpowered and unreliable Renault power unit, limiting it to just 10 points in total.
While Grosjean has already praised the “perfect” Mercedes power unit, he also said Lotus has managed to design a car with some similar strengths to the E21.
“It does feel characteristically more like the 2013 car than the 2014 which is what we wanted, so the team has been doing a very good job and to be fair the car is going where I want it to go,” Grosjean said. “We’ve got rid of most of the weak points of last year’s car and the others are very little.
“Last year there were a lot of things that didn’t go in our direction which meant we went from a wonderful season into a long one. Last season when we got a few things together and they go right everything is well but we kept getting them wrong. That is where the team has been working from.
“It is still early to say [about points-place finishes] and everyone has been working hard over the winter but we are hoping to get back in the points.”
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