New car difficult to drive prior to China

(Clement Marin DPP1 for Renault Sport F1)

Romain Grosjean has reveled that the new Lotus E22 proved to be difficult to drive prior to the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago. The Lotus F1 Team have endured an extremely tough start to the 2014 season and have yet to score a point. This time last season, the Enstone outfit had recorded a victory along with three other podiums.

The team will be hoping that the upgrade package that they bring to the next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix will allow them to score their first points of the 2014 season. Speaking about the initial performance of the new car, Grosjean said:

'It was very unstable and unpredictable, the front is less obvious on TV but but it was both ends. We didn't even know which one was going to slide.

It was down to last year's set - up (which was carried over to the new car) working for this year's regulations, and the aero not working as we wanted as it's all linked'.

At the Spanish Grand Prix last season, Kimi Raikkonen finished the race in 2nd place, 9.3 seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel. This season the Lotus F1 Team have struggled with a number of different issues relating to their new car not least the new Renault power unit which has now been upgraded for the E22 which the team hope will enable them to move forward.

Grosjean went on to say: 'We have ideas now on how to set up the car to make it easier to drive. We just have to keep working.'

So far this season, the Formula One midfield has been blown wide open with Williams Martini Racing and Sahara Force India capitalizing on other team's power starts to the season. 

The Lotus F1 Team aren't the only the team yet to score a point this season as the Sauber F1 Team are also yet to score a point in 2014 however the Swiss based outfit hope that by introducing their new light weight car for the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend that it will enable them to compete for their first points of the season.

©Ben Johnston 2014