Trulli looks forward with Lotus

Veteran racer Jarno Trulli joins the new Lotus team this year after a largely disappointing five year stint with Toyota. With well-over 200 starts to his credit, Trulli lines up alongside Heikki Kovalainen this year and while he expects a steep learning curve with the team, is bullish about the progress he believes the team will make.

"It’s a great challenge with a great name behind,” said Trulli of the Lotus brand. “We know it is hard to come to Formula One and to be competitive straightaway. Only a few months ago there was nothing here and now there are many people working on the car. We know we have a hard task ahead of us but I’m really happy as I can see people motivated and efficient and I hope the season will be very good.

"Most of the people working here I have worked with in the past,” Trulli continued. “Some from my ex-Formula One team others from pervious teams. It’s a new team but is made of very experienced people.”

The Italian went on to explain that chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is the ‘perfect person’ to lead the new project and that building the team from virtually scratch in five months is a remarkable achievement.

“We know we have some work to do, but we have to go step by step,” he said ahead of the team’s first test this week at Jerez. “We have to do the first test - a lot of achievements - before we can really think high. The first few races we need to run, have first pitstops and really get into the routine of Formula One. Then we back in Europe, we will really start to improve the performance of our car.

"We know we are a bit down in terms of aero efficiency and downforce, but we also know that new bits are coming. This is just the beginning."