Late start cost Lotus

(Eric Vargiolu - DPPI for Renault Sport F1)

Renault Sport F1 head of Track Operations Remi Taffin has said that the French manufacturer 'We lack running with Lotus so we lack experience'.

Taffin also also confirmed that 'We're lacking knowledge of the car, simple as that' He went on to say 'We had lateness building the car, we had problems with our power unit and mapping. We had problems with driveability and the clock just keeps on ticking'.

Taffin's comments come after the Lotus F1 Team missed the opening test of the preseason period. At the opening race of the 2014 Formula One season in Melbourne at the weekend the team suffered a double DNF with both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado suffering identical MGU-K failures.

The Lotus F1 Team won last years race in Australia with Kimi Raikkonen behind the wheel but while they struggled this season their old team principal Eric Boullier was on the pit-wall with his new team McLaren to see them score a double podium finish with Kevin Magnussen coming home in second place on his F1 debut while Jenson Button finished the race in third place picking up the Woking based outfits first podium since Jenson Button won the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012.

Remi Taffin believes that the Lotus F1 Team will get better within the next couple of Grand Prix. He said 'The solution is very simple, we get to Sepang, we run with the same race set-up as we did in Australia. We know it's working and we just want to run.

The Malaysian Grand Prix takes place from March 28-30.

©Ben Johnston 2014