Lotus F1 Team has confirmed Tuesday that several technical issued has hit both Kimi Raikkonen’s and Romain Grosjean’s E21s during the Indian Grand Prix last Sunday.
“We tried something different with a one stop strategy and it didn’t work. I had a brake problem for the entire race and they were overheating, and this got worse in traffic so I couldn’t overtake,” said Raikkonen in a team press release.
It also appeared that Grosjean’s Renault engine was not at its best, as the Frenchman had to nurse his car to the finish.
“We’re working closely with Renault Sport. The issue seems to be a repeat of the one we faced in Singapore where a leak in the pneumatic system caused a loss of air pressure,” said Alan Permane.
“Fortunately, we know exactly what we have to do to fix it and Romain’s engine has gone through the correction process put in place after Singapore. Our engine partner is also checking – and double checking - every single race engine at Abu Dhabi to ensure that the same problem does not reappear,” he added.
Team boss Eric Boullier said that the words used in the infamous radio conversations were now a thing of the past.
“Romain was two seconds a lap faster than Kimi at that time, so it was not even a team order. By asking Kimi to let Romain pass, we just made the obvious choice, as Felipe [Massa] could have stolen our podium,” said Boullier.
“With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way. There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate. I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologise for that on behalf of the team. It won’t happen again.”
“We tried something different with a one stop strategy and it didn’t work. I had a brake problem for the entire race and they were overheating, and this got worse in traffic so I couldn’t overtake,” said Raikkonen in a team press release.
It also appeared that Grosjean’s Renault engine was not at its best, as the Frenchman had to nurse his car to the finish.
“We’re working closely with Renault Sport. The issue seems to be a repeat of the one we faced in Singapore where a leak in the pneumatic system caused a loss of air pressure,” said Alan Permane.
“Fortunately, we know exactly what we have to do to fix it and Romain’s engine has gone through the correction process put in place after Singapore. Our engine partner is also checking – and double checking - every single race engine at Abu Dhabi to ensure that the same problem does not reappear,” he added.
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| Photo: WRi2 |
Team boss Eric Boullier said that the words used in the infamous radio conversations were now a thing of the past.
“Romain was two seconds a lap faster than Kimi at that time, so it was not even a team order. By asking Kimi to let Romain pass, we just made the obvious choice, as Felipe [Massa] could have stolen our podium,” said Boullier.
“With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way. There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate. I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologise for that on behalf of the team. It won’t happen again.”