Lotus admits to chassis design mistake
Acting team principal at Lotus, Gerard Lopez has admitted that the team will continue to struggle until the end of the 2014 season, saying that a problem with the current E22 chassis will not be resolved.
Lotus struggled in the beginning of the season with its power unit, but having resolved most of those issues before going to the Spanish GP earlier this season, the team found a major issue with its chassis. Having switched its focus to 2015, Lopez dutifully admitted his team's struggles will therefore continue.
"We had a lot of issues at the beginning of the season with the drivetrain and then somehow midway through the season we’ve found out that we have some issues with the chassis, which are quite difficult to solve for this year", Lopez said in an interview with F1's official site.
"But, it is good that we found out before we started to develop the next car, so for the rest of the season we try to save whatever can be saved - but yes, it will be a difficult season all the way to the end. "
Lopez claimed that the team is not in financial difficulties, probably posting a small profit this year, despite dragging about its deficit, especially from its loss in 2013. He also refuted claims on underperforming drivers and emphasized that the team have everything in hand to fight at the front.
As I said before, 2014 is what it is. It is not the position we are supposed to be in. We have about 470 people in the factory, so it’s still a big team; we have a two year-old wind tunnel, we have two year-old CFD - all the stuff that you need to compete.
"It was the mistake with the chassis that got us where we are now - and we definitely don’t want to make this mistake again. I am not saying that we will be fighting for the world championship next year, but we should go back to where we’ve been the previous two years."
Lopez did not clear up entirely what is the specific problem with the current Lotus E22 chassis, but it is widely known that these issues have created an unpredictable car with an inherent instability under braking.
