Lotus technical director Nick Chester says the development on this year's car "felt a lot more restrictive" due to financial issues.
The Enstone-based team has been the subject of a takeover bid from Renault in the latter half of the season, but with the current team owners having been keen to sell all year they have not been willing to invest in car development. Chester admits it has been noticeable how that has impacted on his work, with the E23 having received few updates during the season.
"It has felt a lot more restrictive," Chester said. "In a normal year we’d bring quite a few major upgrades whereas this year we brought fewer and more minor developments. This means that we had to be more selective in what we brought and we have been a bit more creative in the more minor upgrades."
And Chester admits it has been frustrating to be held back by financial issues when he felt there was a lot more potential in this year's car which has gone unfulfilled.
"I was pleased with the car in a lot of ways but disappointed in the amount of development. We made a good basic car that handled well and with which the drivers could extract the maximum from. Unfortunately we have not been able to put developments on it due to finances; we could have gone a lot further with it otherwise and that would have been very interesting to see."
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