Italian GP: Lotus stops development of 2014 F1 car to focus on 2015

The Enstone team has endured a spate of reliability and performance issues with its E22 F1 design since the beginning of the campaign, only scoring in Spain and Monaco in May.

In Friday practice for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, neither Grosjean nor team-mate Pastor Maldonado were able to outpace the quickest Marussia of Jules Bianchi.

Grosjean revealed after the second free practice session on Friday that Lotus has decided to switch its focus to developing a better car for 2015, rather than improving the E22.

"We have some problems with the aerodynamic consistency of the car," Grosjean said.

"It's a problem we have since day one and it's something we certainly cannot 100 per cent solve for this year.

"At least now we have the tools to measure the problems, and from there we can get better and at least we can try to produce pieces that make it less sensitive for the future.

"We are on next year's car. There is no more development for this year's car."

When asked whether the E22 could score points again before the end of the year based on pure performance Grosjean replied: "No."

MARUSSIA PACE NO SURPRISE

The Franco-Swiss driver, who has yet to commit his future to the team beyond the end of this season, also reckoned it was no surprise that Marussia has been able to challenge Lotus on pace so far at Monza.

"They are quite good in low speed, they were quite good in Monaco, and they have the Ferrari engine, which has made some good progress," added Grosjean, who sat out FP1 so reserve Charles Pic could drive.

"We had some small issues this afternoon - I had a problem with the engine, I went wide in Turn 7 [Lesmo] and damaged the floor, so it cost me laptime in the low-fuel run, but generally the car is not good in this type of track.

"I think the challenge will be to go into Q2 - we may just be in the cut-off.

We may find a little bit of performance for tomorrow, but in general it's going to be very tight."

GARY ANDERSON ON LOTUS AT MONZA

"Without a shadow of a doubt, the Lotus [at Monza] is the worst racing car I've seen in my life."

Read more of GARY ANDERSON's thoughts on Monza practice in the Friday practice analysis feature shortly