Grosjean: The team is working hard to push us forward

China will hold all the more significance for Romain this weekend, as he looks to bounce back from the unfortunate events of Australia and Malaysia. We caught up with the flying Frenchman to gather his thoughts after the first day here at the Shanghai International Circuit

Romain, how did it go today?

It was ok, but not spectacular. It was interesting trying to learn the track this morning in greasy and constantly changing conditions. This made things a bit tricky but I managed to get a few runs in on the intermediates which was good to help build my knowledge both the tyres and the track.

The cold weather here in Shanghai appears to have affected a few of the cars out there, in particular the E20 it would seem; how did it feel out there?

We weren’t expecting these kinds of temperatures, and nobody would have wanted these conditions that’s for sure, but in any case we need to improve. This is one of the first times we’ve struggled but the car still feels ok; not fantastic but not bad either. We’re lacking some performance and it’s now our job to analyse the data and make sure we adjust our set-up to suit the conditions. The good news is we already understand where the time is being lost so we can work on it tonight and hopefully improve tomorrow.

The team has brought a fairly significant upgrade package to the race this weekend; how are these working so far?

Some are working well, while others are not yet producing the results we were expecting. No matter how good simulations can be, it’s always a different matter when you take a concept from the wind tunnel to the track. The important thing is that the team is committed and working hard to push us forward.

Would you say your season starts here after the disappointment of Australia and Malaysia?

I wouldn’t exactly say that; we’ve obviously had ups and downs, but that’s racing. We’re not where we want to be in the standings but when you look at the whole picture it’s certainly not a disaster, and we know in different circumstances we could be in a much better position.

Source : www.lotusf1team.com