Lotus Racing talks about being closer to the midfield lately, but race day at the Spanish GP panned out to be pretty much the same like we’ve seen so far – ahead of the other rookie teams but quite some way from being able to challenge Williams, Sauber or Toro Rosso. While Heikki Kovalainen did not even start the race due to a gearbox failure, Jarno Trulli was the best placed finisher of the rookie teams at 17th, three laps down on race winner Mark Webber.
“It was a bit of a disappointing afternoon because we had a difficult race where we weren’t really able to show our true pace. We had a gearbox problem on the grid with Heikki, which was caused by a procedural issue, not a reliability problem. That’s frustrating as I think he would have had a strong race.
“Jarno made a great start, he had some contact going down into the first corner and throughout the race was struggling with the rear of the car. It was difficult for him in traffic, but he did a good job to bring the car home and get his first real race finish. Now we’ll just have to go to Monaco next week and show what we know we can do,” expressed Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer.
The Finn elaborated on his non start: “We had a gearbox problem while we were firing up on the grid. The gearbox selected two gears at once – there was some sort of software issue which caused it to fail. It’s unfortunate, because we have had such a good weekend, but these things happen.”
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First time I’ve ever had to question Paul Tan’s neutrality, in all the years of reading the blog, is this F1 season. The patriotism you guys have for the fake-Lotus F1 team is silly. You can’t say they were ahead of the other rookie teams when one of their drivers was a DNF… Seriously. Be neutral.
..in terms of results wise, we are ahead of the rookie teams, that’s not a wrong statement. It’s not much of a bragging rights, I know.. but I guess that’s all Lotus Racing can say at the moment since they can’t really keep up with other End-Mid runners. But after all the talk on the new aero package making the car relatively faster, it’s true that the end result was still dismal. Oh well, bring on the next race
well its pretty simple…malaysia always talk loud but no action…
similar with Team Lotus….closing the gap with midfield? You GOTTA be kidding…and yeah…scoring 17 out of 19…that is really a big “improvement”…..bleh
give back money wasted to the RAKYAT~!
You dont talk like that, later all “LOTUS F1” team supporter will not happy, I got scold by them after I commend few million for 3 laps behind.
Improving on what? new package for more failure, i hope lotus can learn from the mistake.
Where does the raktyat’s money come into this??? Please elaborate…. I can see Maxis money, CNN money, even LG money but I’m missing the RAKYAT bit???
Since when LG is sponsoring Lotus! Stop making own stories la!
pls check your facts right before posting:
http://paultan.org/2010/05/06/electronics-giant-lg-is-lotus-racings-new-partner/
Ok Shaft!
That is not true! Did you see any LG decals on the car? LG sponsors the official time for all F1 races la.
Why not you try increasing your IQ and your capacity to do some research elsewhere and not believe everything you read! Even the official Lotus Racing website did not mention anything about LG being an official sponsor of the team. Bodoh!
jarum…ur comments just reflects the blunt needle u are =)
if the news is so not to be believed…wud the following streams post such news:
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=496322
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/8/business/6218861&sec=business
To shoot before checking your own facts right…jus potrays you pot calling kettle black…oh..iv also attached the link in case u have not the slightest day light clue of what it means:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_calling_the_kettle_black
cheers
“well its pretty simple…malaysia always talk loud but no action…”
talking about ownself isnt it?
unless you are not malaysian…
This is malaysia. whatever belongs to our country must sound right eventho it is not good. Small improvement also got to heboh-heboh like hell..
Being the “best of the worst” is what we aim for reflects our same old “jaguh kampung” mentality.
same as proton…ppl say we must be satisfied with proton quality because it is only 25 years old.. quotes like “we are the best among smaller auto company” . “How can we compare proton to big players like mercedes and camry (by right’s camry’s price is same as waja b4 tax :P)”…blah blah. same lame excuses…..
Nonetheless, i still can’t deny proton has improven a lot but what i feel annoyed is the jaguh kampungism mentality….too proud of some insignicant trivial achievement..or megalomaniac (sorry boss… i m not proton basher..i m basher of blind patriotism driven by propagandas)
i think they refer to inches or sentimeter…….zzz
bla bla bla………..same old repeating story on every race…………
It is going to take years for a rookie team to move into the mid pack. Waiting to see results after just a few race? No way!
Ouch..that hurt.
“We had a gearbox problem on the grid with Heikki, which was caused by a procedural issue, not a reliability problem….”
Procedural issue = someone in the team really screwed up.
lotus must improve 1.5 sec per lap
It shame to see Lotus haven’t really make significant progress after their major upgrade. Well..they are in apprenticeship year. Better concentrate for next year cars than invest too many money for this year cars that really can’t catch up more established team.
Don’t know how the FIA thinks that racing will be close this year when there is such a huge disparity between the teams. Last year, the 10 cars were mostly a second or a bit more behind the leader but the gap’s bigger this year.
Lotus have closed the gap. Before in qualifying they’re 5 seconds behind the fastest qualifiers. Now they’re 3.5 seconds behind. And that’s with other cars bringing upgrades too. Today’s cars are too dependent on aerodynamics so it’s not easy to gain time through aero tweaks alone. In the olden days wings are simple which meant that cars more leery and closer racing. Now, get close to the car in front and you’ll struggle.
But truth be told I think Truli should be on his way out. He’s on cruise & collect. Yes he have the experience to develop the car, but he’s not into it in the race. Qualifying yes he can perform. Just not during the race
I totally agree on that..Trulli is more on 1 lap driver not a full gp racer. Heikki on the other hand is a better racer.
Agree. Trulli is too relaxed. I hope whatever problems Heikki will have in the future will all transfer to Trulli’s car.
Excuses , excuses excuses excuses , there are a hundred thousand parts in an F1 car so be prepared for more——–
I am beginning believe Minardi with A Yoong at the wheel lends more credibilty.
Alex Yoong???????? you must be kidding me
However, its just the start……Let’s see how’s next year car….Honestly, you cannot expect so much from a starter team.Even Brawn GP last year has years of Honda experience behind them
If you could read into or in between the lines of my comments??? at least Paul Stoddart didnt’ give much excuses.
Sorry, Stoddart do give excuses. And he’s the one begging for handouts from the big teams, so he does give excuses.
Rather than Honda, I think it’s Ross Brawn himself. Go read his achievements to know just how keng he is.
change the enjin mercedes or renault maybe lotus can move…..
but Williams also used Cosworth’s engine & still can score point
score points but not as high as other leaders…
to win u have to go faster than mostly everyone…
as a team using another manufacturer engine of course that manufacturer won’t give the best engine to the least money…..
then..if lotus got money to buy the best engine sure it will be boosted to front pack..
Lotus should say : today is a fantastic result for us, 1 failure, 1 three laps behind, actually we expect 4 laps behind, thank you to the enginneer and the team, especially our main sponsor, AirAsia.
should say thousand thanks to Tony because get new sponsor for Lotus even not yet score a point.
All the other teams have new sponsors la, not only Lotus Racing this includes Virgin Racing, Sauber and HRT. As far as i know Air Asia is not sponsoring the team. If the Board members of Air Asia are clever they should not!
yes, mistake, it should be Proton, Maxis & LG.
At first the Lotus F1 team rejuvenation was a good thing, but really disappointed in the engine choose. Cosworth is merely a ‘sick’ engine, and no point of going for this engine for the race. Look at RedBull Racing, they using a mid-fielder engine but scores tremendously good. I thought the Proton good relationship with Renault will head towards Lotus using Renault engine, but the reality it’s sours due to the Cosworth slowpoke.
Another addition,
Even the established Williams team ae suffering due to it’s decision using ‘not-so’ Cosworth engine.
3.5 sec gap from 5.0 sec gap is about a 30% improvement , which I think is commendable. So credit where credit is due!
Step in the right direction. Many more steps needed to challenge Williams, Sauber and co. Team should target some points this season.
No point crying over the Cosworth engine. Decision made. Best way fwd is to look for areo gains.
at first, it is quite encouraging to have a team “Lotus” for Malaysia.. but after these few weeks, the same things just keep happening… Frustrating…
Anyway, it is just a FAKE Lotus F1 operated wif our money.. So dun put much hope on it..
ur money ? can you prove to me they use your money ?
why not use campro..hehe
maybe they all should use “slowpoke” cosworth engine! haha! credit where it is due, they are still on top of the rookies. i put that down to the experienced drivers we have (when the car is working), the other rookie teams all have rookie drivers. still, the glamour is not in the backmarkers, i rather be watching the front and see either Ham or But kicking Alo’s ass and of course Michibata ass. lol!
does anybody know, what Vettel’s new car is called?
haha,pity to all of you here,if you observe red bull racing’s first year result,they were exactly in same situation like lotus racing having now,same goes to force india,lotus racing’ s budget actually is quite small compare to other big team,but you see what happen to RBR after 4 years in f1,4 years you know,so what do you aspect from a rookie team like lotus,virgin and HRT with a small budget some more,I don’t know what happen to brawn gp,that team is actually can be consider as a Honda F1 team,they just change the name and the owner and it’s not a whole new team.
As expected there more negative Malaysians taking opportunity to bash like DAP style claiming its a shame n wasting our money. 3 years later or so, i really hope this bashers will silent.
I still glad Lotus is doing good progress and it is still a long session to go. This may be not the original Lotus but bear in mind this is a spiritual successor of the Lotus team with endorsement n support from the Chapman family itself.
Give it few more years. Trust me i think they doing fine now.
Petronas did a good job didn’t support lotus f1..they know the team cant compete with others great team.if still support petronas will loss all their money.
the guy in petronas who made the decision to “abandon” Lotus already left Petronas…May be after the existing contract ends, they will sponsor if LOTUS still EXISTS.
No hope for Malaysia. Politically driven, good ppls left eventually.
You sure good people leave Malaysia, or SELFISH people?
Petronas had lots of airtime on raceday when Michael kept Jenson behind him from lap 20 to finish. :-)
The ROI is fantastic! :-)
Red Bull started in F1 since 2005 after buying “Jaguar racing”. At that time they also using cosworth engine.RBR took five years to be a top gun team. Bear in mind, Max Mosley (last year F1 president) demanded that every new team entering 2010 season must use Cosworth option. That why all the new teams using cosworth including volunteer from William.
I think other reason is the cosworth engine performance, HRT, William, Virgin & Lotus both r using Cosworth Engine, what do you think ?
guys if u really wanna know it not the renault engine that RBR have but the aero package just go F1 technical forum and u will know what F1 about. here people simply go bash here or there without doing some googgling.
do some read or try test..if u have super license dunt simply bash.
kenapa benci sangat kat lotus? kenapa benci sangat kat malaysia, kalau benci sangat blah la…do your bit as a malaysian la? I remembered the Japanese people were pretty upset when Super Aguri defunct despite not performing all the time…So people really….What is so wrong with us spending money trying to do great things in life ? what with the cynicism?? or you just a bunch of born idiot ? feel sorry for you guys…sucker
i am fine with whoever spending their own money to get into f1, but the govt pays money to put grotesque 1malusaya sticker on a f1 car when children are starving and cannot go to school all over our supposedly “boleh” and great country, that is not doing great things in life. if the japanese ppl were so upset when super aguri folded, why didnt they lend a hand at the start? japan is a very rich country and yet, super aguri didnt have enough money to last a whole season!
Japan may be “very rich”, but economists may beg to differ. Put simply, their economy is messy. Like Japan Airline (JAL). They’re Asia’s largest airline by revenue, yet, that didn’t make them immune from going bankrupt.
The govt is trying very hard to improve the rakyat’s well being but at the same time govt also hv to consider other things such as helping brilliant rakyat like Mr. Tony, promoting the country to others, venturing in new advance technology so that Malaysia will not left behind.
There is a comment posted in this article,that person said ‘sikit punya improvement pun heboh like hell’ and actually i can say ‘kalah yang tak teruk pun bising bising like hell’,my conclusion is,there is two types of Malaysian,first is the one who really support malaysia,and one more is the one who really thinks that everything Malaysia has done is such a waste of money,hypothesis is ACCEPTED!!
wow,that annoying politic party really influence a lot of Malaysian,although they done nothing for us,but hey….why should I relate this with politic,haha
yes, just why do you relate it with politics? so it is alright with you that some of our ppl starve or cannot read or write so that a few can act like heroes in f1?
and since some here claim that this f1 team is privately funded and not with govt money, why should malaysians care about a privateer team? what kind of kepala lembu logic is that?
really supporting malaysia does not mean simply swallowing everything the govt puts out.
so if someone or the team itself carries the name of malaysian companies we can’t consider it as a part of malaysian, so if they won anything we shouldn’t be joyous or anything is that right?
mercedes petronas also carries our Malaysian name, and if they won the race or even reach the podium, Malaysian dowsn’t have the rights to be happy and proud of them then?? where’s the logic in that??
our nation’s poverty problem is the same as any other country’s poverty problem, but we do have Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat to help those in need, so don’t say we let some our people go starve, if u find someone who do..please do ur responsibilty as a mlaysian citizen to report their case to the proper government bodies.
we don’t any govt putting on show to be proud of our F1 team mate, i guess if they do improve and manage to get podium, people won’t criticize as much..oh well, that’s the negativity of our malaysian mentality
If there are starving Malaysians, please point them to the nearest “Open House” during the festival season and tell them to see how their fellow countrymen gouge on food and waste them!
Besides, Lotus DID improve. Before this they were 5 secs slower, now with new aero package they’re 3.5 secs slower. A gain of 1.5 sec! Credit where credit’s due. Not only they’re a new team, they did it in only 5 months! The last time anyone did that, it was in 1997, they were 11 SECONDS OF THE PACE!
improvement sure take times, what kind of improvement can hope much as after all this heavily depends on the experience, capability and talent of the f1 engineering team, especially for the mechanical team. as better mechanical part can get great improvement of speed. i feel sorry for kova double gear shift issue as programming issue at this stage is unacceptable.
next time cut it to 2 laps behind. better yet one lap behind. okay guys?
I’M PROUD OF MALAYSIA, PROUD OF LOTUS F1 TEAM!! takda pun membazir duit rakyat tu semua.. :)
so following the same logic, you MUST also be proud of Petronas Mercedes GP. still malaysian and tak da bazir duit rakyat, kan?
mesti la proud.. Petronas is a Malaysian company.. GO MALAYSIA!!!!
Yes..Indeed petronas is a malaysian company…then is that same goes to the mercedes gp? Do u think that all the starving children in malaysia would be proud for it??
To be honest, I think we have done farely well finishing the races and finishing ahead of several of the other newcomers. It can be an EXTREMELY difficult task to score points during the maiden season when you have to develop from ’scratch’. It will take years (if not decades) to build a championship winning car/ team. Furthermore, its also undersirable to compare them with the other mid-performers (i.e. Williams, Renault, STR-Ferrari) given that the teams mentioned here have been in the sport for considerably amount of time.
Lotus has an experienced team with decent drivers on-board. Thefore, its expected for them to do better in the coming races and they should look forward scoring at least a point before the end of the season.
p/s: IThe current Cosworth (supposingly a cost effective solution) engine may NOT give the car much speed it requires. It will interesting to see how well the team perform in either a Renault, Mercedes or Ferrari powertrain. Hopefully there is a more viable option for the team in 2012 when the arrangement with Cosworth ceases.
well said!
malaysia already wasting so much money d….a bit more won’t do much harm..
as long as tony’s in charge, i think lotus WILL move forward. tony will prove people wrong yet again ( i hope )
kereta lotus tu dah ok dah… jauh lebih baik dari Virgin… tapi haru gak bila T.Glock tak jauh kat belakang… yang sepatutnya boleh tinggalkan Virgin 1 lap…
aku rasa Trulli ni cepat pancit… 1 – 2 lap ok la bawak laju… bila dah berpuluh puluh lap… pancit!… Tukang Masak orang Malaysia yang dalam team tu kena bagi si Trulli minum tongkat Ali! Power punya!!!!
when I first saw live timing, Kovalainen is retired… I’m already upset and lost all the mood to watch anymore… I was hoping Kovalainen to show some true power of new Lotus…
this morning, listened to the news saying it was purely human error… what an unacceptable mistake… duhhhh… quite disappointing but what’s done is done… even Tony can’t accept what happened in this race because even he is expecting better results after all those hype in the qualifying session…
but still, those bashers are entertaining… lol… Jarum FTW!!!!!
I believe many of the critics here don’t really watch F1 and do not know how hard it is to actually succeed in F1. I can’t believe that there is such a big portion of Malaysians who are so unsupportive, immature and closed-minded about the issue. How can so many people on Paul Tan expect instant success? Is that really how your lives turn out in reality? Are you guys really that good at doing things first time out? If yes, then kudos. But quite likely, that would not be the case, and you should only compare yourself with others in a similar situation.
They’re the typical Malaysian, expecting instant success all the time. Why do you think get-rich-quick schemes are so rampant, why people often fall for blatant scams and why people often resort to corruption to get money?
These people probably didn’t follow F1 in the olden days when Ferrari was crap. How long did they take to win a championship again after last winning it in 1979? 21 years! And yet these people expect Lotus to win immediately. How stupid!
Lol..No one expect that lotus would win immediately rather most of us was just felt devastating shame for the once iconic f-1 racing team being lapped 5 or 6 laps more in our hand…And even more importantly is we as a conscious malaysian simply think that venturing to this world fastest money burning sport activity would totally unneccsary judging on our current economy situation…Shoud we rise up the petrol price again,imposing the consumption tax,legislating the football gambling?? Then again,i bet how many of u this silly fanatical would dare and or swear to say that this lotus f-1 malaysia wasn’t using even each penny of the gov.money…any1??
hahaha…. love to see how stupid malaysians are. they like giving comments based on what they feel, and not facts.I like people who have visions like Tony, who puts his money on the line to make all Asian proud.
in qualifying, they managed to distance themselves from the virgins by 1 second. not to mention, upgraded virgins. they already said, they wont mix with the mid-fields, just be closer and they deliver what they said.
I hope tony gets tired of malaysian baseless comments and critics and be a Singaporean. we need people like him to make our country the best country in Asia.
Try improving your English first before calling others stupid. This is a blog, so everyone can put across their thoughts and views. Its not necessary to post insults.
By the way, I am not a supporter for Lotus Racing and never will be.
Spoken like a true Singaporean. Can’t breed talents, why not just buy ’em, or in this case, give them citizenship. (E.g. Badminton, Table Tennis etc).
Totally agree with Tidrsi.
To be fair, Lotus did a good job putting the car on track. Except for the boo-boo on Heikki’s car.
Virgin’s new chassis’ pace wasn’t any much better than their old chassis so they’re the ones burning the money, relatively speaking.
I’ll support this team, if for sure it is being totally funded by private money. Public money is acceptable in this only if there’s a tactical purpose. And it shouldn’t be there for long term.
Hope Heikki & Jarno can improve in the next race in Monaco with the new package of aerodynamic that they intoduced and plus the team effort also.
Salam..
although i muz admit alot of ppl will feel proud to have 2 malaysian sponsored team in f1, but unfortunately our well known “richness” not reflected well in our country as alot of facilities yet to improve while G has the money to burn to get some virtual pride but no money to improve our road condition in malaysia.
ya loh, ada yang nak bergaya tapi orang sendiri tak terjaga. lepas tu orang yang nak bergaya tu blame other people itulah yang menyebabkan orang sendiri tu tak terjaga, miskin and starving. bagi orang yang nak bergaya ni tiada lagi yang lagi penting daripada tunjukkan gaya pada dunia walaupun jauh ketinggalan dalam perlumbaan.
if we were really smart, we would put our stickers or hopes on petronas mercedes gp. lotus gp will not last 2 years, how can they? when proton has admitted they dont have the money to develop new model like a perdana replacement? and they are desperate to get their hands on platforms and engines, well so much for our independent, home grown carmaker. this admission by the proton chairman should shut up those ppl who say we are better than thailand because they only know to assemble cars coz we really are not much better.
Software related problem eh?
ha ha ha…. -___-