Tag Archives: lotus

Testing over, Australia is approaching

So testing for the 2011 season is done, the teams have their data and we have the times. There isn’t many surprises within the testing times though I would have expected more from McLaren – not another year spent catching up? If Red Bull stop throwing away points McLaren don’t have a chance. Ferrari should push them hard and expect Alonso to want that title.
Australia is an odd place, it doesn’t seem to be that indicative of the season and doesn’t always show the true pace of the cars. We also know that you can win by being clever here as Jenson Button has shown. Don’t expect the Red Bull to be off the pace though, or for the brakes to explode, they will be hard to beat.
The tyres will be the great unknown in Melbourne as there isn’t really anywhere to use the new rear wing or Drag reduction device, [...]

Full year report: Lotus

Lotus have consistently been the best of the new teams – but don’t let that convince you, Mike Gascoyne knows that isn’t good enough and they are hard at work trying to ensure that next year they are always within a shout of some points, can they do it? Who knows but they stand the best chance.
Jarno Trulli has provided Lotus with a solid platform to both identify the problems with the car and develop what they have for next year, he ensures that they know the car is on the limit and that they are getting the best out of it.
Heikki Kovalainen has also had a good year, he has provided a solid benchmark and pushed Trulli all year. He has provided the team with it’s best finish this year and hasn’t thrown the car of the road like some of the other drivers in new teams.
Lotus have a [...]

Ferrari rule in Monza and the title closes up – again

If you’re driving a Ferrari, Monza is the place you want to win, the Tifosi will celebrate you like a King – it doesn’t matter who you are, they may have cheered so loudly a few years ago when your engine expired when driving for a rival but all that is forgotten if your Ferrari takes the chequered flag first.
So Alonso gets another of the jewels for any Ferrari driver and it was all down to about 5 metres out of the pit lane, the team won the race not just Alonso, Buttons stop was about half a second slower than Alonso’s and that made all the difference. That’s not to say that the Spaniard couldn’t have overtaken Button on the track but I don’t see any reason to believe that he’d have been able to do something he hadn’t managed for the first two thirds of the race. But [...]

So Vettel is back to the top and Alonso was livid

The European race was nothing that spectacular really, dry, an accident – more on that later, a safety car and some racing. The end result wasn’t really that interesting given the form of the teams so far this season. What was apparent was how frustrated Alonso is getting inside that Ferrari and that a Lotus and Red Bull have very different braking points. Oh and that 5sec penalties actually exist.
The race itself wasn’t actually that great once the first few corners were done. Each of the cars was just slightly faster than the ones behind and it was spreading out, except that it for Mark Webber who had managed to find himself in ninth at one point. A few laps down the road Red Bull brought him in for his stop so that he could run in clear air and make up some time of the cars around him. That [...]