Lotus have pulled out of this week’s test in Barcelona, due to issues with their chassis. The problem was identified during the morning of the first day of running while Romain Grosjean was driving the car, and the team has subsequently decided not to participate further in the four-day test.
The chassis used at the Barcelona is E20-02, which had not previously had track time. Chassis E20-01 was used at the Jerez test, where the car showed promise. Testing the second chassis was an important part of this week’s test for Lotus. After identifying quite early that there was a problem with chassis E20-02, the initial plan was to cancel running for the day and send chassis E20-01 from the factory in Enstone to Barcelona in order to continue testing.
However, after conducting simulations at the factory based on the data collected at the track in Barcelona, the team identified that the problem was not solely with the new chassis, and subsequently decided to return to the factory to deal with the issue before next week’s final test.
It is fortunate for Lotus that they managed to complete a fair amount of useful running in the Jerez test, as they are now missing out on four valuable days of testing. Their rivals will be gathering data until Friday, while the team from Enstone has to take a step back to solve their chassis problem. Hopefully for Lotus, they can resolve the issue before the last test beginning on 1 March.
Chris on F1 
Leave a Reply