Gastaldi: Austria, a place that could suit us

Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi looks to the Austrian Grand Prix as offering an opportunity for Lotus F1 Team to get some real momentum behind its championship campaign.

What’s the team’s plan heading to Austria?

The usual; get out there and score as many points as we can! We’ll do this by going as fast as we can to reach the chequered flag before as many as our rivals as possible! Sounds simple, but of course that’s what everyone is trying to do. Looking at the circuit and talking to our drivers and engineers it’s a place that could suit us so we’re feeling quite positive heading there, especially after the E23 showed pretty well in Canada.

What was your impression of the team’s performance in Canada?

The Canadian Grand Prix was a reasonable result for us. The car looked pretty strong all weekend and both drivers were happy and able to push. In the race we couldn’t show the pace we’d had earlier in the weekend, but we were able to fight in the top ten which is what we all want. It was great to see both drivers score, but that’s something we really want at every race. Pastor drove very strongly and did a great job to manage his tyres. He did everything asked from him from the pit wall so we’re happy about that. Romain was also having a great race but one small mistake meant he didn’t score as well as would otherwise have been possible. He fought back so both cars in the top ten at the chequered flag was a good day for us.

Why has it taken until a few races into the season until both cars scored?

It’s been a promising but equally somewhat frustrating start to the season. We’ve been able to score points, but many times we’ve been able to see that better could have been possible if everything went to plan. That said, it’s our first season with a new Power Unit supplier so we’ve been learning all the way. I think that we have a lot of potential to come on strong from now on.

How hard is it for the team to keep pushing?

Everyone is pushing hard. When you come to the factory at Enstone you realise how much potential there is and how much everyone is putting into our campaign. If you look at the teams ahead of us you have three very well resourced squads with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and then Williams who are in their second year of their Mercedes partnership. We’re pushing hard and it’s Red Bull who are immediately ahead of us. They’ve had a stronger start to their season in terms of points scoring than us, but I feel that we’ve got our early season glitches and bugs out of the way; we should come on strong from here on.

Red Bull have the resource for two Grand Prix teams and a Grand Prix; how do you fight against that?

It’s true that most of our rivals ahead of us do have greater resources, but part of the Enstone spirit is being the underdog and prevailing against bigger enemies. We know that Red Bull are ahead of us in the points and will be throwing all their resources at developing their car. We also know we’ll be doing everything we can to catch and beat them.

Will the fresh mountain air give the team even more vigour for the Austrian Grand Prix?

It’s good to breathe in the fresh and sample the local delicacies. There are some fabulous sights to be seen and last year’s event was spectacular and it’s great to see what can be done with a strongly promoted event in Europe.

Jolyon has been announced as driving for the next five FP1s – how is his programme going?

The plan with Jolyon has always been for a decent line-up of FP1 sessions through the season and this includes the bulk of the European races. For Jolyon it means he can make real progress in the car and gain a lot of benefit. For Romain, these are circuits he knows very well so it will be the minimum impact for his race weekends. We have a good driver line-up and they work well together. Our engineers are very happy with the feedback given by all three of our drivers.

How are the development drivers faring?

Both Carmen and Adderly have been in the simulator for quite a few days recently. Carmen actually missed the Canadian Grand Prix to get more simulator time and we had Adderly with us at the race. Both have been in the simulator in the build-up to the Austrian Grand Prix and they are making strong progress in their programmes and helping our engineers with the directions that can be taken with development and evolution of the E23.