Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Lotus ‘very confident’ in 2016 Renault car

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Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi says the team is “very confident” in the progress being made with Renault regarding its 2016 car.

Following the signing of a letter of intent from Renault in September to take over the Lotus team, completion of the deal has been slow as the process has moved forward. However, Gastaldi revealed his confidence in Renault’s intentions by revealing team members have already been working at Enstone since the Singapore Grand Prix.

Asked by F1i when the Renault deal needs to be completed to allow the team to maximise its work on the new car, Gastaldi replied: “Actually we have already started working on the car.

“So [technical director] Nick Chester is very, very confident. He is in Enstone with our team and the Renault team putting things together so it is looking very good, honestly.”

And Gastaldi says there is a real belief within the team that 2016 will be a much stronger year.

“Yeah it will be a different animal. Obviously we have been suffering this season and again I keep repeating the same thing but our best asset is all of the people in Enstone. And you can ask anyone in the paddock because most of the paddock try to take them to their team! So that’s the truth.”

When it was put to Gastaldi that the upgrade delivered by Renault to Red Bull in Brazil had been underwhelming, the deputy team principal insisted it does not affect his excitement.

“I’m confident that Renault will do a very good job. Last year they were behind but it is one of the biggest motor companies in the world so we are very confident that it will go very well.”

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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.