• Mike Gascoyne

Small teams 'playing for millions'

A happy Tony Fernandes - the boss of Lotus - on the Bahrain grid © Sutton Images

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Mike Gascoyne, the technical boss of the new Malaysian-backed Lotus team, has revealed that the battle at the back is actually a dash for many millions.

Lotus was delighted that both its cars finished the Bahrain Grand Prix, even if by the end Jarno Trulli's green T127 was truly limping. But with 12 teams now on the grid, it is likely that only one of the newcomers will finish the 2010 constructors' championship among the top ten, therefore unlocking the financial benefits of the Concorde Agreement.

"At the next three races, it is important just to finish," Gascoyne said. "For now we focus on reliability. To score points is not realistic, but tenth place in the constructors' is the goal, because it is worth a lot of money.

"There will probably be no points [for the new teams], so the finishing places will be important - so one 11th, 12th or 13th place may eventually yield millions."

Lotus has also earned an early reputation as arguably F1's most open team, with some observers amazed about the live information given away by Gascoyne throughout the Bahrain weekend.

Referring to an advance warning about an impending pit stop posted on Twitter via Gascoyne's mobile phone, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport marvelled: "Can you imagine such a thing from McLaren, Ferrari and Co.?"

"We want to be open and transparent about what we are doing. And why not?" said Gascoyne. "Tony Fernandes is a big supporter of this, so we are going to try to tell everyone what is going on rather than hiding it or being cagey. We want to distinguish ourselves in that way."

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