Lotus expects drivers to “deliver more” in 2013

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In the round-up: Lotus expect Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean to raise their game next year.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Lotus duo ‘will be much stronger’ in ’13 (Autosport)

“I know both our drivers will be race fit and, let’s say, delivering more than 12 months ago.”

Eid and Formula One season boost Abu Dhabi airport traffic (The National)

“The capital’s airport in October recorded a 17.3 per cent surge in passenger traffic, boosted by the Haj and Eid season and the start of the Formula One season.”

Comment of the day

Where did HRT go wrong? Thoughts from @Prisoner-Monkeys:

Trying to create a ‘Spanish’ team was the problem with HRT in the first place.

Adrian Campos fundamentally over-estimated the private and public demand for a ‘national’ team in Spain. He sought to capitalise on the popularity of Fernando Alonso, but did not realise that other Spanish drivers like Jaime Alguersuari received very little support in comparison.

And from that point on, it seemed that every decision was intended to make the team Spanish, which led to them establishing a base in a country with no infrastructure and no resources to draw on.
@Prisoner-Monkeys

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38 comments on “Lotus expects drivers to “deliver more” in 2013”

  1. Grosjean will deliver more? Let’s say only 6 incidents for him then. Raikkonen will deliver more? Give him the 2013 driver’s title already.

    1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
      25th December 2012, 0:38

      Lotus need to deliver more, like speed in straights. Red Bull had more speed in straights and they had Renault engines, too. Raikkonen lost a looot of postions because he stayed behind Massa and Schumacher, being mooore faster than them, but he couldn’t overtake in straights, with that bloody Renault engine!! And if you could not overtake in straight then you won’t win nothing. Raikkonen tried some crazy things there, remember Schumacher at Spa, Massa in Bahrain..and so one. But he can do this over and over…he need a better car. Or engine supplier. Maybe with new sponsors come new ..opportunities.

      1. @sorin The Renault engine is at most 10-20hp down on other engines, it can probably reach very similar top speeds. I’m sick of people going on about the poor old renault engine! The main differences between the engines (as described by DC and Barrichello a few years back) is driveability, i.e. where the power is produced an for how long.

        The engines have pretty much been the same since ’06, the only change being a 1000rpm drop in the regs. The engine suppliers are all most likely maxing out what one can get from a 2.4l V8.
        The biggest factor that separates the teams top speeds is the amount of downforce they put on the car on any given weekend. The aim is to get as much downforce with as little drag as possible, so as to be quick down the straights and through corners. It’s about time people give the whole engine-top speed thing a miss.

        1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
          25th December 2012, 1:55

          @timi I understand, BUT what i saw in some casses in straights, was that, the speed limiter was stoping the gas at very low speed for Renault engines. So the car was stopped to overtake, not because of its downforce to high, is because of the limiter. And the only reason you set a low speed at the limiter is regarded to ENGINE(because you want to protect it, etc…). For example at Belgium, Schumacher reached better speed without DRS than Raikkonen with DRS, and Massa with Raikkonen, too. The limiter was the porblem.

          1. They should make a car better optimized for top speed then. Although I don’t see Red Bull’s performance suffering from adopting more-downforce approach.

            Talking about Red Bull and Renault, it’s really unprofessional and backstabbing how Horner is always publicly blaming Renault for everything they lack. He should know that their last two titles are there thanks to brilliant Renault engineers who made EBDs possible long before others even had an idea about it.

            And now talking about diffusers, people don’t give enough credit to those who thought of double diffuser concept. They think Newey is the only engineer in the F1, but he is actually rarely the one to be the pioneer regarding more radical ideas. Even thought Red Bull (Renault) was the first to come up with EBD, they got the idea of focusing on better exploitation of diffuser area only because of DDs of 2009. They would have never went that way if it wasn’t for someone giving them idea to focus on that area of the car, showing how much is to be gained, and giving them a clear indication that maximizing DD would bring the biggest gains in terms of performance.

            That said, they were brilliant in spotting that trend, since I’ve not seen anyone else working on the concept come March 2010.

          2. @sorin, the team do not choose the rpm for the limiter (18000) they choose the gear ratio and this is what limits top speed. RBR seem to choose a ratio that will give them the best qualifying position and usually it works for them. Lotus , Ferrari and others seem to opt for a race set-up over a qualifying set-up.

          3. I think you’re getting confused with Lotus selecting gear ratios which aren’t optimised for overtaking. Most teams hit the limiter thought, not just Lotus. It’s a result of having the most efficient ratios to produce speed over a lap.

          4. @sorin I can already tell off the bat you are wrong, the rpm is set due to the rule book at a cutoff, there is nothing Lotus or any other team can do that would change that. Also what you are describing is a lack of speed in the car due to the car and not the engine. Purhaps less drag like setups would help.

            Also what you are comparing with Merc GP to Lotus is two different things. Shumi was faster due to mechanical grip, in a car that has less aero then all the other top tier teams. For years and years that has been the Brawn method. So once again you have described not an issue with the engine but car setup/package. Perhaps the Lotus doesn’t have a fine balance between corner speed and straight line speed.

          5. Also gear ratios as others have said, are probably another issue as well.

        2. @timi, “maxing out what one can get from a 2.4L V8” to make this true you must add
          1; @ 18000 rpm
          2; using the materials allowed within the rule
          3; and being reliable for the required number of races.

          1. @hohum A tad pedantic. Those are the regulations so I was just assuming Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes and Cosworth all adhere to those rules (and that @sorin knew those rules).. Although I might be wrong ;).

    2. “Give him the 2013 driver’s title already.”

      Yes, but if you go giving titles to drivers before the season has started just because their team say they expect more of said driver in the upcoming season, sooner or later you’re going to have to give the title to every driver on the grid because their teams say they expect more from their drivers.

      Perhaps – and stop me if this is too radical an idea – the 2013 drivers’ champion should actually EARN the 2013 title?

      1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
        25th December 2012, 2:46

        Stop right there!

        1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
          25th December 2012, 2:48

          Nowadays, the cars win tittles not, drivers. Who has the better car, wins! It’s simply. Ask Alonso.

          1. Oh that guy with only two titles won a long time ago? I thought he left…

          2. @sorin Then why didnt Lewis Hamilton win the drivers championship this year?

          3. If that’s true, then why are we awarding Raikkonen the 2013 title on the basis that the team “expect more” from him?

          4. @Colm, because Hamilton didn’t had the best car. He only had the fastest one..

      2. People want to see other people earn things? Noone has time for that. Besides, it cripples the “show”.

    3. the should fix the car ‘s pace on cooler track……..

      Change their strategist too, bloody hell.

  2. Merry Xmas!! May I be thew first to say I shouldn’t be posting here and should be falling asleep from a nice sherry induced haze, but F1 news is still interesting!

    Totally agree with COTD – HRT were stupid to assume an all Spanish team would ever be able to compete with the English, Italians or even the Swiss..

    I hope Raikkonen shows more killer instinct in 2013 to become a real title contender and Romain learns that finishing races is more vital than finishing the first lap/corner first. Raikkonen was peerless in terms of race craft this year but due to his safety he wasn’t able to exploit more opportunities. If Kimi get’s a top car and he’s able to commit fully I think he’ll be able to beat Vettel (who, at this point, i consider the only driver with a good chance of winning the WDC)

    Merry Christmas All!

    1. I’m sure Kimi thought it would be wiser to be cautious in his firs comeback season. I’m positive that next season will be a little different. He’ll be more aggressive. He’s now more comfortable with the team, the car, tires, etc… I’m pretty sure Lotus will deliver a faster car. They spent a lot of effort last season with the double DRS, which was a waste, they should have focused on developing de coanda exhaust. Last few races it seemed they started to catch on with that. If Grosjean sort out his demons, maybe Lotus can finish WCC in second, which will help them developing the car for 2014.

  3. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
    25th December 2012, 1:04

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hopefully everyone will enjoy some much needed beer. And if you don’t drink, you mustn’t worry, you can always guzzle down some soda pop in a hurry. But not too fast for the bubbles will shoot up your nose, like Grosjean flying into Webber I suppose. And if this year wasn’t your best, don’t dwell on it my lad. It couldn’t have been as awful as the year HRT have had!

    Maybe for the new year Scheckter and Alonso will bury the hatchet and someone else will win the title next year and wipe that smile off the face of Dietrich Mateschitz. But that’s not to detract from Vettel, who once again showed his mettle, and desire to succeed, winning without forcing his team mate to incur grid penalties.

    But alas, the 2012 season is now consigned to the past and we look forward to 2013’s new drivers that have been cast. Will Hamilton settle at Merc and drop all that is negative and bitter, or will he post yet more telemetry on Twitter. Will Perez succeed, will Max Chilton impress, and is Fernando Alonso really the best? We will find out next year, it’s going to be magic, and you can read the latest news right here on F1Fanatic…*Cough*.co.uk
    :-)

  4. Lotus should have won in Bahrain and Hungary. In that way, the Lotus drivers did somewhat underperform. They couldn’t win races they clearly could have.

    1. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
      25th December 2012, 1:45

      How do you know the drivers underperformed and the car upper-performed? In Bahrain and Hungary, I say the way around, the car underperformed and the drivers upper-performed.

      1. Lotus clearly had the best car in Bahrain and Hungary by a margin. I cannot prove it, but this should be common sense to anyone with who watched the two races.

        1. I didn’t see much in Hungary that showed Lotus under performing. Both Hamilton and McLaren were just in great form.

    2. I think it was a combination from both the team and drivers at different stages of the season. Whereas Raikkonen had the pace to win in Bahrain, he misjudged his one attack on Vettel, and subsequently never got past.

      On the team side I remember Raikkonen being very annoyed at the tyre strategy used in Barcelona, stating he could have won and maybe if the team was a little more savvy in that area the results might have been different. It wasn’t just the drivers missing opportunities at Lotus in 2012.

    3. i remember kimi had a broken KERS in hungary………

      In bahrain, the team never bother to undercut vet, instead pitted kimi on the same lap as vettel for last stinct with slower pit stop.

      Lotus had pace in bahrain due to fresh tyre, but Vet had 1 fresh set left for last stint, thats why kimi nvr caught up. The car is far from being best.

      In hungary, it was Kimi ‘s tyre conservation technique that allow him to pace himself up front while the rest stuck behind traffics. Broken KERS didnt help……..

      How is kimi underperform?? he showed what the car capable of, results state otherwise obviously.

  5. Looks like F1 has its 11th April 1954 day ;-)

  6. merry christmas ALL. :)

    1. Bob (@bobthevulcan)
      25th December 2012, 3:24

      Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all… from interstellar space!

  7. Merry christmas to all.

  8. Am I the only one here reading the Lotus statement as saying “we won’t be building a new car for 2013” ?

  9. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
    25th December 2012, 18:08

    Am I the only one that is unimpressed by the lack of passion and verve emanating from Renault?

  10. Merry Christmas guys, have a peaceful time and a lot of rest in a family circle.

  11. I hope Lotus don’t jinx them self, that Lotus car that must deliver through out the year and not now and them. Drivers (in particular one) made sure Lotus was not forgotten though they were on a streak of trailing Force Indias and Mercedes at some points.

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