Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Gastaldi doesn’t fear more Lotus exits

Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi says he does not fear more exits from the team amid uncertainty over its future.

Renault’s takeover of Lotus has been dragging on for a number of months, and while the deal is expected to be completed, the slow progress led to financial uncertainty surrounding the team in the past couple of months. With chief race engineer Ayao Komatsu set to follow Romain Grosjean to Haas next season, Gastaldi told F1i it is a natural situation to occur in such a small paddock.

“If there are any team members that want to move, it’s their prerogative,” Gastaldi said. “Of course we are going to miss them, we are a team by all means. But it’s the name of the game. In the paddock, if I come and I offer you more money, you would think about it. We are only human beings.”

And Gastaldi says his focus is more on the new additions for 2016, with Jolyon Palmer set to take part in the final two FP1 sessions ahead of his promotion to a race seat next year.

“Yeah [Palmer will drive], nothing specific but just to get him even more used to working with the team … The next two races he will have a Friday session in order to try to have more experience, us with him and him with us.”

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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.