Lotus's technical director James Allison encouraged by team form in Jerez F1 test

The team topped the first day of the test with Kimi Raikkonen, and ended the week with Romain Grosjean setting the quickest time of all the new cars present.

It racked up 404 laps over the four days without much in the way of mechanical dramas, leaving it at the top of the mileage chart.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT about the amount of work Lotus got through at Jerez, Allison said: "Pretty pleased because we've spent a lot of time on the track instead of in the garage, last year it was the other way round so that's been good."

"We had done quite a lot more running than everybody else so I think that's very, very helpful. The car seems to work quite well, we're pretty happy."

The new Lotus E20 has already gained praise from rival teams and drivers. And while Allison is keen not to get carried away, he accepted that the car had got off to a good start.

"I think everyone can work out we're not at the back and it looks reasonably positive," he said.

"Everyone down the pitlane will say that it doesn't matter, but it's good fun and good gossip. Everyone enjoys trying to guess what everyone is doing and we enjoy it as well, but honestly it doesn't mean much until we get to Melbourne.

"Only thinking about this car and the context of this car, we've been fortunate that it's been well behaved pretty much from the first lap. Not just mechanically; both the drivers had a good feeling with it straight away."

Allison also praised the work carried out by reigning GP2 champion Grosjean as the Frenchman prepares to return to F1 race action for the first time since his 2009 outings with Renault.

"Romain looked very, very fast straight away, and we've got a very good driver line-up," he said. "I think Roman is very fortunate to have a team-mate like Kimi, and he can have a benchmark to judge himself against."