Romain Grosjean confident Lotus will be stronger in 2013

Lotus managed to raise its game this year in comparison with 2011, when it scored 73 points on its way to a distant fifth place in the standings.

In 2012, however, the team managed 303 points, including one victory and 10 podium finishes. It wound up in fourth in the constructors' championship.

Grosjean, who has secured his future with the team for 2013, reckons Lotus has all the ingredients to continue with its upward trend.

"We will try to improve on fourth, that's for sure," Grosjean told AUTOSPORT. "If we do everything right, there is no reason why we can't do better than that.

"The car was good this year, the regulations are not changing a lot, the team is working hard and I'm really looking forward to seeing the car and to see what it can deliver.

"The objective will be to do better and better year after year, starting in 2013."

Grosjean reckons Lotus managed to iron out all the issues that hindered its progress during 2012, leaving him upbeat about its chances of keeping momentum during the winter and into 2013.

"We learned a lot this year about the car, the tyres, the set-up of an F1 car," said the Frenchman. "We were quite good at the start of the year, but even in the last two grands prix we were looking good.

"We solved our little issues, got a very good set-up for the end of the year and I'm confident that in winter testing we can try the different set-up ideas that we had in the season but didn't have time to try.

"From there, we will have a set-up range to best prepare for the race weekends and be able to take the right decisions."