Q&A with Nick Chester (Lotus) before Sotchi

Lotus F1 Team Technical Director Nick Chester looks to the team’s first return to Sochi Autodrom determined to unlock the secrets to a fast lap and solid race performance.

One year on from its debut on the F1 calendar, what do we know about Sochi?

We know that the surface is very smooth and last year we struggled generating temperature with the tyres, partly through the smooth surface and partly through what was a conservative tyre allocation. Pirelli’s softer allocation for this year along with the more weathered track surface and our better knowledge of the circuit should mean we fare far better in this regard. In terms of its needs, we know that it’s a track that is quite power and traction-sensitive. The layout presents a lot of slow speed corners and long straights. Braking down into Turn thirteen is very severe and you come out of the kink before you brake so it is a difficult corner to get right. Overall, the whole track is quite technical, so it certainly a challenging one for the drivers.

Are there any climate challenges?

The weather can be quite unusual in Sochi as you have the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. There’s potential for a reasonable mix of weather in the week ahead so we’ll be kept on our toes.

How rewarding for the team was it to get points from both cars in Suzuka?

It was very rewarding and also very important for us in our fight for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship. We closed up a little bit more on Force India and of course there is a bit more to do…They had a good race in Monza when both our cars got knocked out but effectively we’re one good race away where they have a bad one and we can catch up. It will be tight all the way until the end of the season.

Was more possible at the last race?

We thought that we’d be fairly good in Suzuka. It’s the sort of medium downforce track which tends to suit us. It’s quite a power sensitive circuit which equally suits us. We knew that we’d be quite competitive. I think that we did a good job to get seventh and eighth place. Maybe with a different tyre strategy we could have raced Nico Hulkenberg and Force India better and had a chance to beat him but in the end we had a pretty safe finish.

Renault has signed a letter of intent to buy the team; what does this mean for Enstone?

It looks like there are exciting times ahead. We’ve worked exceptionally closely with Renault for many years in our history so it’s going to be exciting to embark on a new phase of our relationship. There’s a lot of work to do for next year so it’s certainly never a dull moment at Enstone.

How has it been working with Romain over his years with the team?

It’s been great working with Romain. He’s had so many great races with us with fantastic results towards the end of 2013 when he had a string of podiums and drove some stunning races just like he did in Spa this year. He had a difficult year in 2012 but he came back from that stronger and drove brilliantly the following year. Romain has proved to be really quick, always qualifies well and makes good choices during the races. He is a good driver who is fun to work with; for sure we will miss him.