Gascoyne optimistic about upgrades

Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is hopeful that the upgrade his team introduces in Spain will boost them into the midfield…

Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is hopeful that the upgrade his team introduces in Spain will boost them into the midfield.

Thus far this season Lotus have been unable to bridge the gap from backmarker to midfield contender as they had hoped to do prior to the start of the campaign, but Gascoyne believes their new upgrade may just be what is needed to propel them into a battle with the likes of Williams, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Force India.

“We think our update is going to allow us to take a clear step into the midfield, so that we are qualifying with them and out-racing them more and more,” Gascoyne told the team’s official website.

“The update is all built around the rear end. It’s a Red Bull-style diffuser package.

“It’s been a hot topic at the start of the year, so it’s pretty natural that it was going to be an area we looked at. We’ve seen from the development that it is a very big step – far bigger than you would normally expect to be making, which is why everyone else has done it. It means we can catch up with those in front. We’re expecting it to be about a second, up to a second.

“It might take us a couple of races to fully exploit it, as I think it is going to depend on the blown floor and engine strategies, and some people have more experience than us with that,” he explained.

“But we expect our update to be significant. I think we’ll see a big step and I think there is more to come over the coming races,” the Briton added.