Lotus exceeding Trulli's expectations

The Italian was impressed by Lotus's premises in Norfolk, noting that the factory had more resources than he expected for a start-up operation.

"It's rather new, and it seems very modern to me," Trulli told Gazzetta dello Sport. "We have everything, including the facility to produce carbon fibre. On top of that, we also have an excellent windtunnel at our disposal, which I visited on Monday.

"For a new team, we are in a better position than I would have hoped."

Trulli is moving to Lotus after five years at Toyota, a team that enjoyed huge funding from its parent company. While full of respect for Lotus, he said its aims have to be much lower than the world championship glory Toyota had once hoped it would achieve.

"Because Lotus is smaller, it could turn out being more efficient, but there's no doubt it doesn't have Toyota's potential," said Trulli.

He said his initial ambition was simply to do justice to the legendary Lotus name.

"We are under no illusions: we are focusing on a low-profile kind of season in order to get in the points once and again," Trulli said. "The first objective is to give dignity to an F1 team called Lotus. It's a three to five-year long-term project."