Lotus has revealed Romain Grosjean was delayed by a minor problem with his power unit during the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“It was a small bit of sensor mis-information which meant Romain wasn’t getting absolute maximum power,” explained technical director Nick Chester. “Not a big issue, but it was something which meant Romain had to fight a little harder for his overtaking moves.”
Grosjean was stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg in a fight for second place at one stage, and he said the problem hindered his attempts to pass the Force India.
“I could have passed him, not in the first few laps of the race when his tyres were as new as mine, but later on – as we did after the first pit stop – but we didn’t have 100% performance from the engine which made it difficult to make the overtaking manoeuvre.”
Grosjean had another problem during the race, which is regularly one of the hottest of the year: “My drinks system wasn’t working from lap 20 onwards,” he said, “so I was certainly pretty thirsty by the time I got to the end of the race.”
The Lotus driver added he believes Ferrari will find it difficult to replicate their Malaysian Grand Prix form in the cooler conditions expected at next week’s Chinese Grand Prix. “It was good to see Ferrari win in Malaysia and I think it was good for Formula One,” he said.
“They worked well in Malaysia and I think they’ll be a force in the hot races. I think China should play more to the Mercedes but we’ll be fighting to do our best and present a challenge too.”
Foosa
2nd April 2015, 15:10
I expected Lotus to be fighting Williams with the Merc engines..
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
2nd April 2015, 19:40
Yea. I thought they would build the 4th-best car this year but….
Breno (@austus)
3rd April 2015, 0:15
… they lost Allison.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
2nd April 2015, 18:14
It’s interesting the tinge of jealousy on Merc’s opponents, it is as if the costumer Merc teams feel they don’t have any excuses but to blame themselves for failing at the final hurdle.
Sauber (@mumito)
2nd April 2015, 18:30
That is if you assume the engine is exactly the same…..thing that I do not believe
Joseph
3rd April 2015, 4:55
Homologation
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
3rd April 2015, 6:11
Hardware is, by definition in the rules. Software may differ. Unless you believe in conspiracy theories and such the first one is fact.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
3rd April 2015, 6:12
@mumito
grat
3rd April 2015, 13:48
Wear your tinfoil hat all you want– just remember, you prove that Merc’s customers aren’t getting the same engines, you get Mercedes thrown out of (at least) the constructor’s championship.
Park
3rd April 2015, 9:53
Merc PUs only have little advantage over Ferrari PUs in terms of power, furthermore Merc PUs need more cooling than other 3 PUs
A.D. (@aks-das)
3rd April 2015, 15:37
I thought the problem was aerodynamics for the Mercedes and not the PU. The car compared to Ferrari is hard on tires.
I have not heard anything about Mercedes PU needing more cooling. Given their engine architecture, PU cooling should be the most manageable compared to others.
Park
3rd April 2015, 16:50
According technical articles from last week, generally Merc powered cars had bigger inlets and outlets at last GP.
Grosjean's smile (@testacorsa)
5th April 2015, 21:45
It doesn’t necessarily mean that the PU runs hotter. It could have been a choice they took, just to make it easier on the engine. And why not, when they thought they were well ahead of anyone else?
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
3rd April 2015, 6:10
He finished eleventh, same as last year.
Park
3rd April 2015, 10:03
HELP!
HELP!
Where can I find 2014(2013/2012/…) FULL(q1+q2+q3) qualifyings’ results?
Foosa
3rd April 2015, 10:13
Try formula1.com
Paul Trautman
4th April 2015, 23:07
The whole problem is the term “power unit”.
We should get rid of all that KERS crap and return to calling them engines.