Zitat Points prove Lotus's 2013 progress is real By Jonathan Noble Monday, April 29th 2013, 09:50 GMT
Lotus has emerged from the first four races as Formula 1's biggest gainer over 2012, and equally confident it can keep up its form for the remainder of the campaign.
Kimi Raikkonen's three podium finishes from the first flyaway events, which included victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, have helped Lotus deliver a greater points improvement than any other outfit compared to last year.
Looking at the points scored in the first four races last year, against what the team have delivered this time around, Lotus has notched up 36 points more in the first four races than it did last year.
Its step forward in form is also highlighted by Kimi Raikkonen also delivering the biggest improvement among the drivers , enjoying a 33 points step up over how he did in the first four flyaways of 2012.
Lotus's form has impressed a number of its rivals, and proves that the E21 has built on the strengths of last year's contender.
With not every team having been able to deliver such progress over the winter, team principal Eric Boullier says the first races have shown that Lotus's step forward is real.
"It is always difficult to keep any momentum actually, but we can say we are fighting with the best now," said Boullier.
The challenge the team faces going forward though is in ensuring that it has the development potential to push on.
Although there is talk that rivals like Red Bull are preparing major updates for the Spanish Grand Prix, Boullier has hinted that his outfit is preparing something similarly big.
"We have an update like everybody," he said. "I don't know what Red Bull means by massive - so we will see. But we will all bring a nice package and I promise you that the development of this car is going very well."
FERRARI AND MERCEDES SHOWING GAINS
Although they do not match the progress made by Lotus, both Ferrari and Mercedes have also made good strides compared to last year.
Ferrari's 32 points jump is mostly down to the step forward that Felipe Massa has made this year, delivering 28 points more than he managed in the first four flyaways of last year.
And while Mercedes may have been left a little frustrated by missed opportunities in the first races, it has delivered a solid platform by scoring 27 points more than last year.
Interestingly, Lewis Hamilton has scored one more point this year for Mercedes in the first four races than he managed with the pace-setting McLaren 12 months ago.
McLAREN THE BIGGEST LOSER
McLaren's start to the campaign may not have been as bad as the team had feared heading to the first race, but the extent of its performance drop compared to last year is highlighted by a year-on-year comparison.
The Woking-based outfit is the biggest loser compared to 12 months ago, scoring a whopping 69 points less in the first four races than it managed in 2012.
The team has high hopes that a major update package planned for the Spanish Grand Prix can help lift it nearer the front, but it will need something pretty sensational if it is going to get itself anywhere near the form it enjoyed 12 months ago.
Although the extent of its drop points towards its title hopes slipping away, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said in Bahrain that he still did not want to give up on 2013 just yet to focus on next year's car.
"Maybe it is a character flaw, but I have made it reasonably clear from Australia that I am not even talking about 2014 at the moment," he said.
"One of my weaknesses is I want to be competitive. I want to get back to the front and I want to come to grands prix thinking we can win.
"We haven't thought that for the last four races and we want to get it back."
HOW THE POINTS STACK UP
A look at the team's performances over the first four races – which have taken place in varying weather conditions and on different types of circuits – has offered us a good insight in to the overall potential of the teams.
Comparing how the outfits have performed this year, compared to 12 months ago, shows which teams have made a genuine step forward and which are struggling to keep up.
In order of the biggest gains compared to last year, the teams are ranked:
1. Lotus 36 2. Ferrari 32 3. Mercedes 27 4. Force India 9 5. Red Bull 8 6. Toro Rosso 1 7. Caterham = 8. Marussia = 9. Williams -18 10. Sauber -26 11. McLaren -69
Zitat von WHATEVERAren't you guys glad Perez went to Mclaren instead of Kimi?
...and williams! what do we learn boys and girls? we trust Kimi, because he knows what hes doing!
maybe (just maybe) with guy like Kimi who knows what he wants from car Williams would only improve last year car rather than going backwards? no guarantee of course, but it seems like listening to Kimi's wishes helped engineers to find better balance of car to suit top driver. Again, I am not a supporter of 'driver helps to design the car' crap.
ZitatRaikkonen not on the same page as James Allison
Last weekend the usually measured and understated Technical Director of Lotus suggested that the car would not need a huge amount of work to stay in the title hunt for 2013.
Today Kimi is not so sure. “For sure it’s an okay start and we’re in a better position that this time last year, but there’s a long season ahead and it’s too early to say if we can fight for the championships right to the end. It’s going to be hard to catch Sebastian if he keeps taking good results so we need to start taking more points from him, but you never know what can happen. We’ll keep pushing to improve the car and see where we end up.
To catch the leaders, we have to work twice as hard as they are,” adds Kimi. “It’s no secret that we want more speed from the car in qualifying; it’s so tight up there at the front and we really need to be on the first two rows to fight for victories every time. It’s good to be able to start the European season where we are as this is when you see teams starting to push on with lots of new parts for the cars.
It’s still early days, but to have scored strong points since the start of the year is obviously better than not having them. We need to keep scoring points in the same way; even if it’s a bad weekend for us, we need to keep finishing as well as we can. That’s how we will fight to the end of the season.”
An unusually verbose Kimi continues by reflecting on the result in Bahrain, “You’re never really happy if you don’t win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. We could maybe have been a few places higher in qualifying which would have made things easier, but I drove to the maximum and luckily we found the pace in the car that was missing in qualifying. Let’s hope I’m happier in Spain.”
Lotus believes strong car will make Raikkonen stay on in 2014
Kimi Raikkonen will commit himself to a fresh contract at Lotus as long as the outfit continues to build on its strong start to the campaign, reckons team owner Gerard Lopez.
The Finn is a free agent at the end of the year, and his strong comeback to F1 has already seen him emerge as one of the key players in the 2014 driver market.
But despite speculation already linking him with other teams - including Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari – Lopez says he is 'convinced' that Raikkonen will remain where he is providing Lotus maintains it competitive form.
"Kimi is a fantastic guy," Lopez said in an exclusive interview with AUTOSPORT. "The thing about Kimi is that he is very thankful we brought him back to where he is.
"And we are very thankful that he has brought the team to where it is now. So it fits nicely.
"To be honest with you, I am convinced, and I don't say this lightly, that if Kimi gets what he wants from us in terms of performance and so on, we will see Kimi moving forward with us.
"He knows that; and he says that. He is not going to get what he gets with us here anywhere else. It doesn't matter if the team has a blue car, a red car or a silver car.
"But this is also racing. So we have to make sure that he has a good competitive car. He has got one. As long as we can give that he will be with us."
Raikkonen has won two races with Lotus since returning at the start of 2012, and is currently 10 points off leader Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' championship.
Lopez said he never had any doubts that Raikkonen would be able to produce such form after being lured back from rallying, even though there were many people sceptical about the choice because of the Finn's relaxed public image.
"We must have had 11 choices [for 2012] – and I can tell you from the outside it was by far not the most obvious one. But to us, it was," he said.
"Honestly there is a lot of pride in this team that we made that choice because we were 100 per cent convinced. It is one of those things where you look at people and say, 'I told you so'.
"We were absolutely convinced that he had what he takes. I dealt with him, talked to him and knew what I was going to get myself in to.
"I knew I wasn't getting someone who was going to shoot a commercial every week or whatever. That is not what we want. But a dedicated racer? That was a given."
I haven't read any speculation linking Kimi with McLaren or Ferrari...
Anyway, I think Lopez is right. They are both very thankfull for each other and they should be. But it is racing and if Red Bull gives Kimi more down force, the switch may happen. And the bigger looser will be Lotus.
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Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:18 pm
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