Lotus Formula 1 team baffled by struggle for Canadian GP race pace
The Lotus Formula 1 team doesn't understand why it struggled for pace relative to the frontrunners in the Canadian Grand Prix, despite being close to Ferrari and Williams in qualifying
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado qualified fifth and sixth for the Montreal race, and Grosjean lapped within a tenth of Valtteri Bottas' Williams and within two tenths of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.
But both Lotuses were less competitive in the race, with Maldonado - who was running close behind Grosjean when the Frenchman tagged Will Stevens and was forced to pit out of fifth place - finishing 26 seconds behind third placed Bottas.
After the race, Lotus head of trackside operations Alan Permane told AUTOSPORT he "didn't know" why the E23 was less competitive in race trim.
"It's almost the opposite of normal," he said.
"We were a little surprised by how close we were in qualifying to be honest.
"Honestly, I don't know. I expected to be a bit closer [in the race], but it became apparent very early on.
"It wasn't anything to do with saving brakes, or tyres, or anything like that - we weren't really saving fuel honestly.
"I don't expect we were in much better or worse shape than anyone.
"It may well be that here we just managed to turn the tyres on well for that one lap.
"We'll probably never really get to the bottom of it, but we'll try and understand it."
LOW DEGRADATION A FACTOR?
Lotus has a history of producing cars that are good at managing delicate Pirelli rubber and most drivers made only one stop during a race that featured low degradation on the soft and super-soft compounds.
But Permane suggested the reason for the E23's lack of race pace might be something more fundamental.
"The degradation was very low - if that is one of our strengths, looking after our tyres in a low deg race, then that isn't going to favour us," he added.
"But even before the deg set in we could see the Williams and Ferrari were going away from us.
"We were nowhere near staying with them, and it wasn't like Romain had any threats from behind.
"We just didn't have the pace of them today.
"[But] we were closer to Ferrari on Saturday than we have been for a very, very long time, and to Williams, and that's with the same engine.
"That's encouraging. We have improved relative to them and we'll just keep plugging away at it."
Share Or Save This Story
Autosport 75: How Verstappen scored his first F1 win
The supercharged Revolution that has piqued an Olympic legend's motorsport taste
How Radical revamped its record-breaking flagship model
The key moments in Renault's F1 history as it bids farewell
What F1 history tells us about three-way title deciders
Was short-lived Lotus 76 simply a lame duck or never given a fair crack of the whip?
How Sutton's BTCC steamroller overcame Snetterton challenges
Rossi faces key decision: Who will replace di Giannantonio at VR46?
Red Bull reacts to Verstappen’s criticism – why ‘I told you’ moments are needed
Mini miracles as remarkable podium stories play out at Snetterton
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments