• Lotus news

Pressure on Ferrari and Mercedes - Boullier

Lotus has emerged as Red Bull's nearest challenger in recent races © Associated Press

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• Japanese Grand Prix

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says the pressure is on Ferrari and Mercedes to keep his team at bay in the constructors' championship.

Romain Grosjean's third place in Japan coupled with Kimi Raikkonen finishing fifth ensured Lotus outscored both teams for the second consecutive race. Having looked like it was being cut adrift in fourth place in the standings, Lotus has scored 58 points over the last two races, compared to 23 for Ferrari and 20 for Mercedes, and Boullier is sure the teams ahead will be feeling the heat.

"The pressure is on them, not on us," Boullier said. "23 points I think we are behind Mercedes and 33 to Ferrari. If we can keep going like this - it's a bit ambitious maybe - but if we can keep going like this we could close on the third place … pace is one thing but you need to deliver the points as well."

Boullier attributes the recent strong form shown by Lotus to improved qualifying pace and effective updates on the E21.

"We could develop the car; definitely what we brought during the season delivered the performance we expected, more or less. It's true that it was a bit of a gamble but I'm very proud of what we could achieve with the wheelbase package - which is not only the wheelbase but also the aero around it and everything - and it's good to see the new process we put in place including the driver in the simulator looks like at least for this time it works.

"So it's good, and it's good to see that we could raise our game a little bit, improve the car in qualifying and keeping the characteristics of the car for the race."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.