Lotus remain upbeat for the 2015 season, believing their car has the potential to score big points after a disappointing race which saw both retire early in the race.
Both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado suffered opening lap troubles which started with a loss of power for the Frenchman whilst he was on his way to the grid.
Maldonado meanwhile crashed out after getting involved in a first corner incident which also involved Felipe Nasr and Kimi Raikkonen.
Both however remain positive for the next race in Malaysia after a decent qualifying session which saw them secure top ten starting positions.
“We had a loss of power on the formation lap; there was a technical issue which we are investigating,” said Grosjean. “It’s not how you want to end your race, but we know the car is good and we’re miles ahead of where we were last season.
“We have a good baseline with the E23 and a good engine. We also have new pieces that we are bringing over for the next races, so more performance coming.
“The first race is always a bit of a tricky one, you never know what might happen and, unfortunately it was bad luck for us today but it doesn’t matter: I’m still very hopeful for the year.”
Maldonado, whose opening lap crash was through no fault of his own, agreed: “Racing is like this. It was quite a busy start, going into a narrow corner. I just felt a big hit on the back and didn’t see what happened,” he explained.
“It’s disappointing because it was a great chance for us to have a great race. The pace of the car was looking much better than in qualifying, so looking forward we can learn from this race. It was a good weekend until today.
“It’s looking quite promising. In two weeks we will be again fighting for points and again doing our best to be even more competitive.”
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