Lotus careful in difficult conditions
Lotus F1 and Romain Grosjean endured a cold and wet final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, collecting and correlating data whilst getting to grips with Pirelli’s latest wet weather tyres in the inclement Barcelona weather.
Though no technical issues were encountered, a limited lap tally of 41 was the result of the day with the team not opting to set a representative lap time when the track was drier.
Romain Grosjean: “I spent a lot of time in the car again today, but this time it was in the garage and not out on track. It was certainly cold and slippery out on the circuit and the conditions were worse than we would expect during the season. This at least meant it was a good test of the performance of the wet and intermediate tyres. I’m happy that we had no issues and the balance of the car is good in these conditions. I’m really looking forward to getting more laps in the car next week and seeing the latest upgrade package as I’m feeling very positive with everything I’ve seen so far.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Discretion was the better part of valour today and we took the opportunity to evaluate performance on the wet and intermediate tyres as well as running a collection of non-weather affected data correlation programmes. We were successful in both these objectives and are well placed heading into next week’s test back here. Romain reported the E21 to be a step forwards from its predecessor in terms of wet weather performance, which is another thing to be happy about. Being slowest of those who set times is not representative of where we are, as we didn’t run seriously when there were drier conditions. It’s nice to complete a test at a second circuit with only positive things to say about the car. We look forward to four more days testing here, starting next week when we will evaluate a package of new aero parts.”
The team returns to the Circuit de Catalunya for the final four days of pre-season testing, starting on Thursday 28th February.
Chassis: E21-02Weather: Cloudy, wet, grey, miserable, ambient 7-8°C, track 8-9°C
Programme: System checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, assessment of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package.
Laps Completed: 41
Classification: P10, 1:34.800
Interruptions: Red flags, data collection device changes, tea breaks
