Lotus: Early bath on first day in Barcelona

Lotus F1 Team has stopped running early in the first day of testing at Barcelona and will not run for the rest of the day.

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “We completed a few aero runs and then started timed runs, but I was very quickly aware that the car wasn’t responding as it should. It’s not ideal to lose track time, but fortunately we will have the chassis which ran perfectly in Jerez so I should get some good track time tomorrow. It’s far better that we have an issue like this now rather than in Melbourne.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “This morning was our first shakedown of our second chassis. Once the car was on track it was soon evident that everything wasn’t quite as it should be. As a precaution we are returning the chassis to Enstone for further investigation. Chassis E20-01, which we used in Jerez, is being sent over and we expect to be on track with that chassis tomorrow.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “This is a minor setback to our overall test programme. Fortunately we accumulated good mileage in Jerez. If this is the only issue we have during testing then we will still be well prepared for the start of the season. We’ll be back on track tomorrow with chassis E20-01 and assessing chassis E20-02 back at Enstone.”