Allison: “Lotus ready for first victory”

Lotus technical director James Allison is convinced that the Anglo-French team does not have much left to achieve the first victory of the new era.

“We will have to wait a little longer for the E20 to take its first victory, but I think we can do it”, explained the crew chief. “In Bahrain, when Kimi passed Romain he was clearly faster than Sebastian Vettel, thanks to having new tires compared to the German. It was very exciting to watch him close the gap, and he was very close to overcoming it, but not close enough. If we hadn't had some small damage to the front wing and with a better position in qualifying, we definitely could have won the race." Allison explains Lotus' development programme: “To Barcelona we will bring the first tranche of improvements resulting from our Windshear program, as well as some parts of our wind tunnel development. There will be changes to the front wing and the bottom of the car. In the Mugello tests we worked on some radical changes that were too long to do in the Friday free practice of a race. This allowed us to answer some questions that gave us good direction for our future increases. This is the advantage of a mid-season test compared to a pre-season test. At the beginning of the year we focused on reliability and there was no time to experiment with new solutions”.

For the Lotus technician, however, the key to this season are the tyres: “The ultimate goal is to create a car that behaves in such a way as to make the most of the available tyres. All tires have a range of operation and to exploit them you need to have good downforce, with a mechanical suspension package that is not abrasive to the tyres, and with drivers who drive in tune with the needs of the tires and do not damage them unnecessarily. Every team is trying to achieve these goals and we are no different. However, I am comforted by the fact that the E20 has proven to be competitive in all the first four races of the season, with the exception of Friday morning in Shanghai when it was too cold."
Allison concludes his analysis with a consideration of the Barcelona track, well known by everyone because winter tests are carried out on it. “Even though we know the Montmelò track like the back of our hand, the race is always a little different to what you see in the winter tests due to the change in temperature from February to May. Tires behave differently with more than ten degrees added to the asphalt temperature. Furthermore, the car has improved quite a bit since the last time we tested there: we will still work to beat the competition and make sure we get the most out of the car." he closed English.

Lorena Bianchi