Romain Grosjean says Australian GP no F1 test session for Lotus

After missing the opening 2014 test at Jerez, Lotus endured a tough time in the following tests in Bahrain and completed the fewest miles of anyone during the winter.

But when asked if Lotus would have to treat the Australian Grand Prix as a test session to make up ground, Grosjean said: "It's not a test session.

"We have to try and score points. Being there just to compete is nice but it's not what we want.

"We are not in a nice situation but it doesn't mean that it's over.

"If we can save as many points as we can early in the season then we can recover."

Grosjean, who referred to Lotus as "the slowest" Renault-powered car at the end of the final test, added that the team is yet to even find a way to run cautiously with its car to at least allow it to complete a race distance in Australia.

"No, we haven't managed to find anything," he said of the idea of running at a reduced pace to preserve the car.

"It's not related to how much power we run. And no one wants to run with half the electrical power you have because you'll lose five seconds per lap.

"[The Australian GP] is not going to be nice but this is the situation we are facing.

"All we can do is try to be as good as we can until we get to the grand prix and discover what it is like to race at 300km/h with 100kg of fuel."

Read more from Grosjean in AUTOSPORT's 2014 F1 season guide magazine, including how many times he and Kimi Raikkonen spoke when Lotus team-mates, and why he feared 'being punched in the face' on the grid