Lotus not certain to use its DDRS at Spa

Describing the first half of the season as ‘pretty good’, Lotus’ Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane expects the team to be fighting for podiums right up to the end of year.

We’re now entering the second half of the season; how would you rate the team’s performance in the first ten races?

On the whole I’d say we’ve had a decent start to the year. It’s frustrating to sometimes come away from a weekend knowing we haven’t quite got the most from the car, but at the past few events we’ve brought some successful updates that are working very well. Out of ten rounds so far we’ve had eight podium finishes – including a victory at the opening round – so it’s been pretty good overall. Of course, we always want to win more races – we’re here to fight for World Championships – but second in the Drivers’ Championship and a very close fourth in the Constructors’ battle – within touching distance of second and with a healthy gap behind – is a good position to be in. We’re battling with teams that have arguably got a lot more resources at their disposal, so I think we’re doing a very good job with what we have here at Enstone.

Hungary was the first race with the revised Pirelli tyre construction / compound combination; what have you learned from that?

From Budapest we’ve learned that the ‘new’ tyres seem to suit our car relatively well. We can only assess their effect on performance relative to the competition around us, and I’d say we’ve not done too badly on that front. Mercedes for example seem to be very well suited to them, but Ferrari perhaps not so much. Although we were slightly quicker than them in both Germany and Hungary, ourselves and Red Bull look very evenly matched. I wouldn’t say they’ve changed our position too much.

Belgium presents a different challenge…

Yes; a total contrast to Budapest in pretty much every area. Similar to Canada, Spa is a much lower downforce layout than most venues we visit with significantly lower temperatures; usually between fifteen and twenty degrees ambient. We will also be using the hard and medium compound tyres which – combined with the cooler climate – have not been our strength I think it’s fair to say. We have however been putting in a lot of time and effort to get the harder tyres working better in lower temperatures, and I’m fairly confident we’ll head into this race remaining equally competitive.

Spa is a circuit which should surely suit the DDRS device; is it on the radar for this weekend?

Absolutely. We haven’t made a final decision yet as to whether it will be deployed, but we’ve been conducting a lot of simulation work with the concept to help clarify that decision and there’s a good chance we’ll see it make an appearance.

Coming off the back of the summer break, has there been any time for further upgrades to be prepared for this race?

Although we have had a decent gap of four weeks between races, two of those are eliminated by the enforced factory shutdown. This still leaves two weeks of course; a period of time sufficient to bring a few new parts to the table as we would normally do in such a gap. The advantage we have with Spa being so close geographically is that we can be working on the cars back at Enstone right up until the Tuesday night before the race, and still have sufficient time to get them to the circuit ready for work on Thursday morning. We’ve got several updates coming up – both mechanical and aerodynamic – so we’re confident of making another step forward.

With 2014 and the associated regulations changes drawing ever nearer, do you anticipate a notable switch in development focus for the rest of the season?

I expect most, if not every team on the grid to be focusing the majority of their design and aero resources on next year’s cars by this stage. The changes are so significant that – without unlimited resources – you really have no alternative but to have switched your focus in this respect if the aim is to be competitive in 2014. You may see a few small upgrades appearing as the races tick away, but I suspect we’ve witnessed the last of the major overhaul packages. If this rings true throughout the paddock – and I think it will for most teams – then I fully expect us to continue fighting at the front for the remainder of the season.