No updates for Lotus come Bahrain. That’s the admission of Jarno Trulli who notched up 102 laps in Saturday’s test, setting the ninth quickest time.
When asked whether the Lotus he drove in testing would be the Lotus on the grid in Bahrain, Trulli replied: “Yes. As we are short of time, we cannot really ask for more from the team. It was a great effort to put the car together in such a short time so it was ready for Barcelona and then Bahrain.”
Despite this, Trulli remains confident that the team can do well, and fight with the newcomers.
“I am always confident.” He added. “Of course it would have been much better to have a couple more weeks for the whole team to prepare. We will be there – we will race and be professional.
“The fact is the car is not quite there yet. We are still waiting for some new parts, which will make it much quicker. This might take until after the first couple of races.” He told the official F1 website.
“Maybe we can fight with Virgin, but the rest of the field is still out of reach.”
Something the Lotus does have, which newcomer Virgin have struggled with, is the reliability. Lotus have completed over 248 laps in the past three days, whilst Virgin have only managed 114.
“The reliability is there though. We made a compromise during the design process to first have stable reliability and then develop the pace. If you do not have a reliable car, you might end up not running, and therefore not developing at all.”
