Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez has moved to allay fears that the team is struggling financially to such a severe degree that it might not make the grid.
The Luxembourg businessman rubbished such claims and says the reason they had an asterix next to their name on the official FIA entry list, was purely because of an administration error.
“We just had the wrong team name on the list, namely the one of two years ago,” he told Auto und Motor Sport.
“I can assure you, everything is still the same [as before].”
He also addressed concerns raised by Lotus’s decision to skip the first test in Jerez.
“We are very satisfied with the development of our car,” he said, “which will perhaps look a bit different from the others.
“We believe it is better to use the next few weeks in the wind tunnel, which will give us more [benefit] than one test on the track would.”
Meanwhile he confirmed the team’s finances are in order, despite giving up on the failed Quantum deal and even assured that Kimi Raikkonen had been “partly paid” and he “will get the rest soon.”
“The [Quantum] money never arrived, so we cancelled it,” he added. “For 2014, our budget is complete with our new sponsor PDVSA.”
