Lotus may have started 2012 with two scrappy weekends, but delve deeper and the evidence suggests they can regularly challenge for race victories and maybe, at a push, the championship.
So far Romain Grosjean has had two early race retirements, whilst Kimi Raikkonen didn’t make it past Q1 in Australia and suffered a five place grid penalty due to change of gearbox in Malaysia. This along with the rain in Sepang has masked the team’s true potential.
When you study qualifying and the race lap charts it’s very clear that on a weekend when Lotus doesn’t encounter problems they’re capable of challenging for race wins. Certainly they should be on the podium regularly at the very least.
This year’s Lotus is probably the best car this team has produced since 2005/06, when under the Renault name they won both titles two years on the trot. It’s a very well balanced car and is fast over a single lap and consistent over a race distance.
In Melbourne, Grosjean qualified a brilliant third just 0.380 seconds behind the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately we never got to see his race pace as he got a bad start off the grid, and then made contact with Pastor Maldonado, which ended his race.
After a miscommunication with the team Raikkonen didn’t make it to the second part of qualifying in Melbourne. Therefore we didn’t see where he may have ended up on the grid had he made Q3.
Starting 18th meant that he was constantly battling with other cars as he made his way through the field. He rarely spent any time in clean air. However when he was in clean air it was clear how quick a car he had.
Grosjean ahead of the pack before his retirement (© Lotus/LAT Photographic).
When he found clean air on lap 14, he was quicker than the two McLarens. Kimi posted a 1:33.066 whilst Button and Hamilton were clocking 1:33.164 and a 1:33.255 respectively. Kimi was also quicker than the pair on lap 15.
The only difference between them would have been that the tyres on the McLaren had also done a qualifying lap, whereas Kimi’s hadn’t. Even so, that’s still very strong race pace from Lotus.
In Malaysia there were even bigger hints on offer that Lotus has a race winning car. In Q3 the iceman was only 0.242 seconds slower than Hamilton’s pole time. What’s more interesting is when you watched the lap onboard it didn’t actually look like a particularly good lap.
There were a couple of very twitchy moments in the middle sector (which Martin Brundle described as scruffy during commentary). Then in the tricky corner leading onto the long back straight the back end of the car stepped out, which will have lost him time too.
Raikkonen said on the Saturday: “Unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes on my fastest lap which probably cost a couple of tenths. Without that, we were in with a shout for pole today. I got a little bit sideways at the exit of turn nine and we lost some time, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Had he nailed his lap then he could have really posed a threat to Hamilton’s pole position. As it was, he ended up fifth which became 10th after the five place grid drop was applied.
Mistakes and collisions have cost Grosjean a good finish (© The F1 Times).
In the race Grosjean had a collision with Michael Schumacher on the first lap, and then beached the car as the rain got heavier. So for the second race in a row we never got to see what the talented young Frenchman could have achieved in the race.
Rain and the fact he was fighting through the field again (due to the grid drop), meant that for the second race running we didn’t get the opportunity to see the true race pace of the Lotus in Raikkonen’s hands either. In the end he did well to finish fifth, which included a battle with the Red Bulls in the middle of the race.
In the brief period of dry running another snippet of very strong Lotus pace was revealed. Kimi set the fastest lap of the race on lap 50 and then on lap 53 out of 56 (which then wasn’t beaten).
Kimi made very good use of the hard tyre, and his times got faster and faster as the stint went on. To be setting fastest lap times in the latter stages of a stint on these fast degrading Pirelli tyres has to be an incredibly encouraging sign for Lotus, and a testament to Raikkonen’s ability too.
Many say the fastest lap of the race isn’t significant anymore due to the refuelling ban. However looking at the fastest lap stats since the regulation changed, it’s only been the top cars earning the accolade.
Can Raikkonen win a race or two during his comeback year? (© Lotus F1 Team).
Last year there were only three occasions where a Red Bull or McLaren didn’t get the fastest lap of the race. On those three occasions it was Ferrari (the third fastest car on the grid) which posted the fastest lap.
Technical Director James Allison said after the Malaysian GP: “What we’d give for a ‘normal’ race.”
He added: “Starting without grid penalties for gearbox issues, without wet conditions for two drivers who have never sampled the Pirelli wet tyres, and so on. The big positive we can take from today is that our pace and degradation on the slick tyres at the end of the race was very encouraging. Give us a clean race with good getaways from the right qualifying positions and we should be able to collect a good reward.”
What’s also looking very promising for Lotus is Raikkonen’s form. It’s as if he’s never been away. As we saw him fighting through the pack in Melbourne he’s clearly lost none of his racecraft, despite spending most of the last couple of years racing against the clock in rallying.
Furthermore the team environment seems to really suit him and his personality as opposed to the extra baggage/requirements that came from driving for McLaren and Ferrari.
Crucially he seems to be adapting to the Pirelli tyres too, and appears to be able to take care of them without losing his speed. There was always a concern the Pirelli tyres wouldn’t suit him in the same way that the Bridgestones didn’t, which held him back at Ferrari. Instead he is taking to them like a duck to water in the same way as he did with the Michelins during his best days at McLaren.
The Raikkonen we all wanted seems to be the Raikkonen who’s returned.
Everyone hoped we would see the McLaren version of Raikkonen on his comeback, and it looks like that’s exactly what we’re getting.
Despite a couple of unfortunate incidents for Grosjean that led to retirements in the races, it’s clear from qualifying that he is very quick, and Lotus made the right decision to give him a chance this year.
In China, if we see dry weather throughout the weekend, no mistakes, no glitches from the car, perfect performance from the drivers and good strategy, then the Lotus E20 has the pace to put one of their drivers on the top step of the podium.
The big challenge will be how well they can develop their car over the course of the season against the might of McLaren and Red Bull.
It’s clear though that there is much more development potential from this car than there was with the 2011 car featuring the forward exhaust concept.
Allison says: “When you look at how tight the field is, the sort of developments we will bring (to China) would gain us quite a few places on the grid if nobody else were doing the same thing; unfortunately for us of course they are all working just as furiously as we are!”
He added: “We’ll just have to hope our development slope is steeper than theirs to allow us to inch forward in China. This year more than ever, mounting a sustained development programme will be the key to success.”
The odds on Lotus and Raikkonen to win the championship are very long after two average races for the team results wise. However after studying their first two 2012 race weekends in detail you could do much worse than putting a few quid on them.
We could be about to witness something special.
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