Lotus Team F1 driver Romain Grosjean highlighted in last weekend's China Grand Prix the team's E23 Hybrid's level of performance.
The Frenchman claims Lotus is currently at the same level as Red Bull which the team is battling against for fourth place in the constructor's standings.
"We were frustrated after the first two races because we knew our performance level was better than what was achieved," commented Grosjean to l'Equipe. "We had the potential to finish fifth in Australia and seventh in Malaysia, but it didn't work out. Now we're currently where we should be, fighting with Red Bull as the fourth team to be reckoned with."
Grosjean, who battled with Ricciardo at the start in China and fought hard to finish seventh, believes Lotus can even tackle Williams as the season progresses.
"In qualifying, there's between 1/2 of a second and a second which separates us from them over a full race distance, which amount to a minimum of about 20 seconds. That was the gap with Bottas at the finish on Sunday."
"Obviously, we'll need to make more progress but we can close the gap. In Barcelona, we'll have some evolutions but we'll try to bring on a few things as early as Bahrain which in itself is a track that should suit us more than Shanghai."
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