D’Ambrosio: The E20 really is a fantastic car

A frustrating day for Jérôme d’Ambrosio yesterday at the Mugello circuit, as torrential rain halted his Lotus F1 Team debut in its tracks at the halfway stage of the session. Nevertheless, the Belgian driver was upbeat about his day’s work; as usual looking at the bigger picture…

Jérôme, a disappointing day with the weather unfortunately working against the team; what can you take from your time in the car?

It’s a shame that today’s running was so limited. We had a busy programme planned, and while this wasn’t completely aborted we were certainly limited in what we could achieve. On a personal level I still learnt a lot today in terms of getting a feel for the car and all the procedures, including practice starts and pit lane routines. Any time in the car is going to benefit me, and I’m pleased the team gave me this chance. At the end of the day the weather is the same for everyone and there’s nothing we could have done to change it.

You mentioned that the team had a full schedule planned; what were the initial intentions for you today?

The first thing was obviously to give me time to get used to the E20. Apart from that, there were a few setup variations we wanted to test once I had got up to speed. There are always things you want to test during a race weekend but simply don’t have a chance to try due to the time it takes to change elements of the car. This was meant to be our main focus today, but unfortunately there was not enough dry running time to make it happen.

From the limited running you did manage to complete, what did you make of the E20?

Although I only completed 40 laps, 20 in the wet and 20 in the dry, I instantly had a great feeling out on track. The E20 really is a fantastic car; totally different to anything I’ve driven before. In the dry especially it was immediately obvious just how good the car is in terms of stability and predictability; it’s just a very easy car to drive. The team has been doing this for years with a great history of success, and you can feel that not just in the car, but in the way the whole team operates.

What was behind the decision not to run in the afternoon?

If we could have gone out on the slick tyres again, or even the intermediates, then for sure it would have been worth running as we would have been able to compare the data from the morning session and analysed what effects the changes were having. The problem was that the conditions were so extreme we would have learned very little from going out on track, as we wouldn’t have been able to get any kind of comparable information.

It must have been frustrating from your point of view to have the day cut short?

Of course it’s disappointing; I was scheduled to do around 100 laps in dry conditions and as a driver you want as much time in the car as you can possibly get. Even at lunch I was expecting to go out again as the rain was easing off, but then the downpour came and ultimately it’s what’s best for the team that’s the most important thing, no matter how much you might want to just get out there and drive. As I said, we would have gained very little by going out in conditions like that; in a race situation there would definitely have been red flags. It’s not just disappointing for me; the team wanted to try out some new things, and unfortunately we couldn’t do that. Ultimately, the risks outweighed the benefits, so we made the right decision by staying in the garage.

Source : www.lotusf1team.com