- Lotus
Lotus surprised by start to life with Mercedes power
Lotus technical director Nick Chester says the team is surprised how few teething problems it discovered with its new Mercedes power unit this winter.
A wretched campaign last year prompted a switch from Renault to Mercedes power and Lotus has looked like a different outfit to the one which spent most of last winter in the garage. The team has not encountered any of the major issues which limited mileage in 2014 and Chester admits he had been braced for some problems early on.
"In a way, yes," Chester said when asked if Lotus' smooth winter had surprised him. "Given the number of changes I'm pleased with how the running has gone and how few changes we've had ... It's massively different. Straight out of the box we were running a good number of laps. We've been running 130 laps a day no problem and the car is much, much more reliable. I almost don't say it because we'd hate to retire in Melbourne now but the car has been very reliable."
Though the season does not officially start until the teams arrive in Melbourne Chester says the outlook at the team is much more positive than this time last year.
"[It looks] a lot better really. The power unit is a good step forward for us, and on the chassis there is a big step forward. We've got a much more consistent car, drivers can get a lot more out of it much more easily, it's much easier to drive on the limit and more predictable, so we've got quite good steps in both areas."
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