Lotus technical director Nick Chester says the team is hoping to emulate Williams this season but admits it will be behind at the start of the season.
Williams - using a Mercedes power unit - finished third in the constructors’ championship last season and was often the closest challenger to Mercedes. With Lotus switching from Renault to Mercedes power for this year, Chester says Williams is a main rival for it now the two teams are running the same power unit.
Asked if Lotus is still hoping to fight with Williams this season, Chester replied: “That’s the target.
“I think they are a bit ahead of us at the moment. We’ve got a few developments coming for race two, race three that will help to hopefully close that gap. But obviously they have had another year with the power unit so they are a little bit ahead.”
Focusing on the speed of development for Lotus so far this pre-season, Chester says the E23 will receive further steps in Malaysia and China.
“It has changed a bit, there has been some updates. We’ve got a few minor updates for Melbourne, not much but a few minor ones which I think will help a little bit, and then we’ve got bigger updates planned for race two and race three.”
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