In an interview with Autosport today, Lotus’ Technical Director Nick Chester is confident that the team can make a “massive step” up next season that will allow them to challenge the likes of Williams.
Having finished fourth in the 2012 and 2013 campaigns on the back of a couple of race wins, Lotus had high hopes this year but they were well off the pace with both their chassis and Renault engine not up to scratch.
However, the team will switch from Renault power units to Mercedes next year. Williams have proved this season just how powerful the Mercedes engines by finishing third in the Constructors’ Championship, so it is no surprise to see that Chester is optimistic about their chances.
In an interview with Autosport today, Chester is confident that the Lotus team will make a step forward next season with switching to Mercedes power, also knowing where they went wrong with the car aerodynamically and hope to be able to catch the Williams team. Chester stated the following:-
‘I think we can make a massive step. We know how much the engine’s worth, we know what our aerodynamic problems are; couple fixing the aero problems with what the engine’s worth and we can make a big step up.
‘Williams have done a great job; if they have good development over the winter it will be hard to catch them, but we’ll be trying to get on the back of Williams if we can.’
It is clear that Chester is confident that the team will move forward from this season not just as a result to switching to Mercedes powered engines but also understanding where they went wrong with this season’s car and working hard behind the scenes to learn from their mistakes also.
As Chester points out, Williams have benefited greatly from using Mercedes power while also producing a competitive and consistent car that has allowed them to perform on the track this season. I do feel that Chester is using what Williams have achieved as a platform for Lotus to build from and aspire too and he truly understands that Williams will be improving their performance from this season going into next year understandably but want to try as much as possible to close the gap to the team if they can do so.
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado had plenty of problems with the back end of their E22 this year and further on in his interview with Autosport today, Chester feels that was one of the areas that they can improve. Chester added the following:-
‘The packaging is very different, and that has some advantages in how we lay out cooling systems in the back of the car. The way the Mercedes engine is laid out is quite nice in a few ways for how we do the back end of the car.
‘Our whole cooling system layout will be different, so it opens up quite a few possibilities for us.’
From what Chester has stated today, it is clear that the challenge that the Mercedes engine presents while developing and working on next season’s car is very open to them which is good in a way as it could provide them with the chance to do something new but it could also lead them in another direction like this season which Lotus cannot afford to go down again for a second year running.
But overall, Chester is confident that he and the Lotus team will make improvements in their performance compared to this season and wants to try and close the gap to Williams if they can. But as Chester admits himself, it will take a lot of hard work for them to achieve this objective. And for me, what Chester and his personnel behind the scenes need to do is to ensure that they capitalise on using Mercedes power which is the best on the grid at the moment, use Mercedes and their expertise effectively to give both of their drivers a consistent, reliable and competitive car that will allow them even the chance to catch up to Williams.
Otherwise, if Lotus cannot do this, we could see once again the team failing to deliver on the track, no matter what aerodynamic direction they undertake with next season’s car and in the process lose a promising and talented driver like Grosjean who I feel Lotus have been lucky to retain this season.
The time is now for Lotus to give it everything they have to close the gap to their rivals, without compromising the advantage the Mercedes power unit brings them and also not compromising the performance of their car in the process. And there’s no question that all eyes will be upon the Lotus team during the 2015 season and they have to deliver; no more excuses.
