Lotus says it can deliver strong results in 2012 after signs of promise in Australia

Although Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean endured frustrations in qualifying and the race respectively to leave the team well adrift of the podium, Lotus chiefs are upbeat about the platform it has for 2012.

Team principal Eric Boullier told AUTOSPORT: "The result was not as rewarding as I would like, for all of the effort we have put in, but if we are able to qualify well [Grosjean] and then race well [Raikkonen] it is promising for the future. If we don't have any stupid race incidents, then we can deliver a strong performance."

Although Grosjean's early exit after a collision with Pastor Maldonado meant there was no proper indication of his potential in the race, Raikkonen was able to deliver some impressive lap times as he climbed up from 17th on the grid to finish seventh.

But although Raikkonen's pace was often a match for race winner Jenson Button, Boullier was not getting too carried away as the team packed up and headed for Malaysia.

"We need to look at the race as a whole, but Kimi had a good race and Romain was definitely up to speed so he could have done a very strong race as well," he added. "It is promising for the future, but we will see."

Technical director James Allison told AUTOSPORT that although a strong performance in Melbourne is no guarantee that a car will be quick elsewhere, he was upbeat about what he has seen.

"You normally look at who does well here and they will do okay all year," said Allison. "We were alright in Jerez, we were alright in Barcelona and we were alright here, so I am pretty happy overall.

"Last year was a pretty tough ride for everyone in the team, grinding out the year with [a car concept] we knew we were trapped with. So to bounce back from this and the [chassis] troubles we had in the first Barcelona test, to show that we can come here and get this done, is great."