Lotus pleased with return to form in Germany

After a trying few races, Lotus’ Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane takes great satisfaction from a double podium performance at the Nürburgring and anticipates an intriguing crescendo to the first half of the season.

Sum up the German Grand Prix from your perspective

We’re very happy to be back on the podium again after a short spell of somewhat bleak races. Both cars ran faultlessly from start to finish and for a good portion of the race it did look like we would be able to take the fight to Sebastian [Vettel], but ultimately we didn’t quite manage it. The win may have eluded us, but to have both drivers pick up silverware and also outscore our rivals in the Constructor’s Championship means we can’t be too disappointed.

Could more have been done to make up that final place with Kimi?

The damage was done when Kimi was held up by Lewis [Hamilton] after his first pit stop, but he came back fighting at the end of the race to finish a very close second with a little help from the safety car. We did consider running him on a two-stop strategy, but it would have meant an incredibly long final stint and ultimately represented a sizeable risk, as we could see the tyre performance dropping. The path we chose guaranteed second place with the possibility of a late charge for the win, while the alternative – despite also offering the potential for victory – would have very likely resulted in the tyres falling off a cliff and dropping Kimi behind Fernando [Alonso]. To be honest we did expect slightly more performance from his final set of soft tyres, but he was right with Sebastian at the end so I think the right call was made.

Romain received rave reviews for his performance; how did you rate his drive?

Romain had a very strong weekend. He did a fantastic job managing his option [soft] tyres during the first stint, which enabled him to make some great gains and challenge Sebastian right up to the final stages. We’d seen promising signs from him in that respect on Friday, but with the higher temperatures and obvious additional factors of a race scenario it was very impressive. He’s had some bad luck since the podium in Bahrain, so it’s all the more satisfying to see him back at the front of the pack.

With a few weeks until the next race, what effect will this result have on the team?

A result like this is a great morale boost for everyone; not just the race team, but equally those back at the factory who work so hard but don’t often get to be here and share the result on track. We’ve now got the Silverstone test to prepare for – with plenty of interesting new parts on the way for assessment – so there’s actually not much in the way of rest before we head to Hungary, but we’ll be looking to head into the shutdown on the back of another good result to give everyone a satisfying and well-earned break.

Source : www.lotusf1team.com