Romain Grosjean was positive but cautious after setting the quickest time of testing so far in Jerez today.
“It feels even better than the start of last year so that’s a good point to start with,” said Grosjean. “But the real answer will be Melbourne.”
He described the E21 as an improvement over last year’s car and said he’d had a “good day” with it. “I tested a few things that we wanted and were on the programme which is good.”
“A few answers from the test, a few things we want to test in the future. So it’s good now to have Kimi [Raikkonen] in the car he will give his feedback and then we will see if we can cross them in and move forward from that.”
He said the cool conditions at the track made understanding the way the tyres were working more difficult. “It’s not easy, to be honest,” he said.
“But I think everyone’s been struggling with the cold temperatures, it doesn’t make our life easy. But a few things that we wanted to test one the tyres and we’ve got a few ideas of what we want to do at the end of the week and the next test. Barcelona will be a little bit more relevant on that.”
Beginning his second full season with the team, Grosjean said he was able to get up to speed more quickly:
“I think it’s easier to start where we wanted to start already with the car, the baseline and the work with the engineers. I kept 80 percent of the same stuff which is good and we know each other very well now. So it’s already a big difference to start the season.”
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Deepak (@ideepak)
7th February 2013, 2:21
I have a HUGE feeling Grosjean won’t even finish the Aussie GP. I know he said he’s had talks with Lotus and all about his crashes and amateur mistakes, but I can already picture the so called “first lap nutcase” in action.
If the Lotus is better this year, it will only give him even more zeal and confidence — which throws open a wide window for him to repeat a Spa Francorchamps or a Suzuka.
Now that I’ve just realized this, I can’t even wait for the green lights to clear in Melbourne — what a season it shall be !
robfff
7th February 2013, 7:04
I think he will surprise you. These guys generally focus so much on their weaknesses that they turn them into their strengths after time. He’s probably been putting a lot of work into correcting that problem.
Deepak (@ideepak)
7th February 2013, 7:54
I certainly hope so – I have no ill will against the guy. He’s lightning fast but obviously forgets you have to finish a race to gain anything.
Having said that I also would like to see some drama – so I’m not entirely sure if I want him to fix his mistakes. ;)
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
7th February 2013, 7:57
I think Grosjean doesn’t deserve the title of “first lap nutcase”. Yes, he was in the middle of some first lap collisions, but before Spa there was little in his driving that really deserved criticism. It was mostly just bad luck of a midfield driver. He should be blamed for Spa and Suzuka and that’s pretty much it. Lotus would not retain a driver who causes collisions and crashes the car all the time.
Lauri (@f1lauri)
7th February 2013, 8:38
Kimi managed to finish EVERY race in 2012. Because of that you Can blaim Romain for not finishing. When Kimi knows which fights to pick, Romain picks all the fights and loses half of them. Looking back at last season it was obvious how Romain, Pastor and Bruno did a lot of crashing – for their own fault or because they put themselves in a difficult position – and lost a lot of points by doing that!
MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
7th February 2013, 9:08
Most of Romain’s crashes weren’t his fault. I don’t know why it’s so hard to understand that sometimes bad luck is just bad luck, and being involved in an incident isn’t the same as causing the incident. Yes, he made some mistakes, but I don’t see why people expect him to repeat them.
BasCB (@bascb)
7th February 2013, 8:01
Lets wait and see @deepak. Personally I think he could do a lot better this year after he shakes off the recklessness, then the overcautiousness of last year.
But I fully agree with you on the first race not coming soon enough!