Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Lotus hit by freight delays in Japan

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Lotus faces a busy Thursday night working to prepare its cars for the Japanese Grand Prix after its freight was delayed.

When the team arrived at the circuit on Thursday morning it found its hospitality unit locked and much of its freight still to arrive, with team members waiting around outside the garage. While the hospitality unit remains locked, the freight finally arrived in the early afternoon, with the team having to borrow forklift trucks from Mercedes, Sauber and Manor to help speed up its set-up process.

Romain Grosjean admits the situation is far from ideal but praised the team for its attitude.

"We had a little bit of a pizza party at lunch but the guys are going to do their best as always," Grosjean said. "They are here, we are here to race. I have always said since day one that the group of people working at Enstone is unbelievable and again that’s the proof.”

With Grosjean missing FP1 as Jolyon Palmer drives in his place, the Frenchman insists the delay should not impact on Lotus' competitiveness at Suzuka.

“It doesn’t mean that we cannot fight for a podium this weekend, look at Spa - we had bailiffs in the garage and we were on the podium! So I think when we start like that we are normally pretty good!

“It’s just not nice for Enstone. It’s just a situation which is very tricky. I explained a little bit why in Hungary, then I think Gerard [Lopez] explained a bit more last week. It’s just waiting for answers and confirmation about the future of the team. But as I say the main thing is the spirit inside is still there and what we want is to race, race hard and go for it.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.