Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Lotus ‘ready to surprise a few people’

Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi says the team is “ready to surprise a few people” this season.

Having won a race in both 2012 and 2013, last season saw Lotus well off the pace as the team managed just 10 points in total throughout the year. With a switch from Renault to Mercedes power units and a more predictable car this season looks set to be more productive for Lotus and Gastaldi says the progress made shouldn’t be underestimated.

“We’re ready to surprise a few people and show everyone what we can do,” Gastaldi said. “We had a somewhat quiet season in terms of results last year, so 2015 is all about getting back to strong results. There’s a strong determination at Enstone and we’re ready to remind everyone of our potential.”

And Gastaldi says he has been pleasantly surprised how well pre-season has gone, despite Lotus not getting its car to the first test until after the opening day.

“We’ve been very pleased with progress. We did miss one day of pre-season testing but once the car hit the track it’s proved reliable and has plenty of potential. Both Romain [Grosjean] and Pastor [Maldonado] have said they are very happy with the way the car feels and this is crucial for our drivers to be able to deliver their best performance.”

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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.