[douglaswebster]

I am fully aware that testing is a poor indicator of eventual race pace (and also that the big teams may yet be holding back their best), but I’m not sure what Lotus could have done thus far to look more competitive on the days they have run.

Strangely, I haven’t read a single article about the possibility that Lotus could be for real. I’ve read almost every other wild idea about what could maybe happen this year, but none about the possibility that the fastest team in testing could turn out to be a very fast team. It seems odd, no?

[George]

They seem to be fast, but remember they started last year with a podium and ended up at the back of the midfield. Considering how consistently fast they are I wouldn’t be surprised if they were mixing it with the Mercs/Ferraris in Melbourne, but McLaren and Red Bull have been sandbagging.

[douglaswebster]

I think that drop off had a lot to do with a limitation of the front exhaust arrangement and also the lack of top driving talent.

They also may have shifted focus early to 2012, which would be consistent with what we’ve seen so far in testing.

I’m not suggesting that it’s Brawn ’09 all over again, but I’m just shocked that someone else isn’t making wild claims of that nature given the record of top times so far.

[douglaswebster]

I think what RB and McLaren are doing is almost beyond sandbagging. They are racing around in a spec that exists only to test (and never race), and perhaps full of fuel.

They are both launching their ‘real’ cars tomorrow effectively.

[S.J.M]

Makes for interesting reading,
http://abulafiaf1.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/barcelona-testing-02-march-2012-day-6/

if correct it puts them infront of Ferrari (for now) but behind the Merc’s

[australian]

With the Vanilla Ice Man involved, I do believe they are absolutely the real deal baby, watch and see

[AndrewTanner]

Admittedly Lotus are looking good. However, as said above, it largely depends on your future ability to innovate, adapt and develop. If there was any team last year that lost out the most when it came to this, it was Lotus.

4 or 5 of the teams on the grid this year could probably throw all their resources into ensuring lots of points for the first one to three races but you need to ensure that you have a car you can move forward with and don’t end up throwing all your eggs into on basket when one of your competitors will likely come along and throw your world into disarray at some point in the season.

[Author]

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