Lotus didn’t showboat in winter testing

Mike Gascoyne has denied that Lotus’ pace in Australia proved the team was showboating in winter testing.

After the pre-season test period, most F1 insiders predicted that the Tony Fernandes-led outfit - now with a Renault engine and Red Bull rear end - was ready to step into the midfield.

But in fact, the T128 once again seems simply the best of F1’s three newest outfits including Virgin and HRT.

Faced with the charge Lotus had showboated in testing, technical boss Mike Gascoyne fired to Auto Motor und Sport: "Utter nonsense”.

"The last day in Barcelona was a race simulation, so why would we lie to ourselves?"

He said the car’s problem in Melbourne was due to not being able to heat up the Pirelli tyres.

"With the hard and the soft tyres we were well below the average temperatures of all the other cars in the field," explained Gascoyne, referring to data that is shared by F1’s official tyre supplier.

It is for that reason, and the fact that Pirelli is expecting teams to struggle with degradation in the Malaysian heat, that Gascoyne is much more upbeat about this weekend’s event at Sepang.

"We will see how good our car really is. Maybe there (in Malaysia) our weakness will be a strength," he said.