AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 20/21/22 JUNE 2014 SPIELBERG

www.lotusf1team.com Tough Calls Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi heralds the potential excitement as Formula 1 returns to Austria as well as giving a frank assessment of the state of play following a double retirement in Canada

What’s the outlook heading to Austria? What do you think about Formula 1 returning Where do you position Team in the We have potential which is still to be fulfilled. Canada to Austria? current order of teams? It’s good to see another was a kick where it hurts for everyone at the team but It’s good to see another race on the calendar and It’s a difficult question. We are only seven races we took stock, identified the issues and have taken it exposes our sponsors and partners to another in to the biggest rule changes we have seen for a race on the calendar and it action to avoid any repeats. The last thing you want market. For the drivers and engineers it presents a generation so we’re all finding our place. Certainly, exposes our sponsors and is both cars sat in the garage at the end of a race, different challenge. It’s quite a short track, but one we’re learning a lot. I don’t think it’s fair to judge us but that’s what we had. Thankfully it is very rare for with plenty to think about. The racing could well be purely on our results so far this year, and fortunately partners to another market. us. A rear wing issue for Romain was something very good. the championship is 19 races long. Monaco and unforeseen. We’ve analysed what went wrong, found Montréal were both races which didn’t play to our a fix and it won’t happen again. A power unit issue What do you make of one company having two strengths and additionally we had reliability problems for Pastor was not something new so we’re spending Formula 1 teams and one Grand Prix? at both of them. Austria looks to be more positive in more time with Renault Sport F1 to do everything It’s an interesting situation which shows the terms of its potential for us, as well as the next few possible to avoid a repeat of this. It was an issue commitment of one multi-national organisation to races too. We’re making improvements all the time with a power unit sensor. Just a small thing, but the sport. It’s been a little while since we had a new so we can tackle all the aspects which cause us a something that had terminal repercussions. European race on the calendar so that is great to see. challenge. We’ve seen organisations own more than one team Do you think a return to more conventional before, so that’s nothing new. permanent tracks this summer will tap in to the latent potential of the E22? Canada was quite an exciting race? Yes that is the objective. We saw that on a level There was certainly a lot going on and Canada has playing field at Barcelona we can be fighting for big produced excitement so many times over the years. points. The E22 when running cleanly can be a potent It’s great that Felipe [Massa] and Sergio [Perez] were proposition but the bugs must be ironed out and we fine after their incident at the end of the race, and have to start scoring points with both cars to move only natural that there would be many differences our way up the points table to where we think we of opinions about how this came about. For Daniel should be. [Ricciardo] it was a wonderful day and he richly deserves that victory. For the championship, there was an exciting battle at the front of the race which wasn’t without a little controversy. This is what Formula 1 is about.

FEDERICO GASTALDI DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL Positive Spin previews the Austrian Grand Prix, looking forward to a circuit he’s never driven before, hoping to harness the progress made with the E22.

We’re definitely making What’s your outlook heading to Austria? How do you prepare going to a track that’s new there was an issue with the rear wing. It’s another lesson strong progress. I am positive. Even though the end result in Canada for you? learnt and we will come back stronger for Austria and might not show it, we’ve actually made good progress There’s a lot you can do with simulators, watching on beyond. with the car and it’s starting to feel like a real racer in board laps from other people and going through data and how it handles and how all the systems feel. This is very predictions with your engineers as well as driving the How competitive do you think you can be in important to me as it helps you get the most out of the track on the Xbox! That said, nothing beats getting in the Austria? car through every corner to make the most of every lap. car and actually driving it for real. I’ll be pretty excited at We won’t know for sure until we’ve been out on track, but Certainly at the start of the season this new generation of the start of FP1 as that’s when I’ll really know what sort I don’t think the circuit should be as much of a challenge car was not the easiest or the most pleasurable thing to of track it is. to us as Monaco or Montréal. Certainly there are fewer drive, but I’m being won round! The feel of the car is an low speed corners which seem to have been more difficult important aspect of the improvements being made so it’s How do you work on set-up at the same time as for us this season and the downforce level could suit us another piece in the jigsaw. learning a new track? better too. You very quickly know what you want from the car and Have you driven the Spielberg circuit before? how to put together all the corners which make a circuit How has it been working with a new team-mate Competing in the Grand Prix will be my first experience that’s new to you. The objective for learning a track and now you have a good number of races together? there, which is a pretty cool way to get to know a track! setting up the car is to go as fast as possible so for both Pastor’s a great guy and easy to work with. We’re both It looks like quite a fun lap with some high speed sections it’s all the same goal. positive and proactive and know what we want from the and not too much low speed stuff – which hasn’t suited car and the team. He’s fast too so it keeps me on my toes our car so far this year. The track has a bit of undulation How frustrating was it to retire from the to beat him! too, which is always fun as a driver. A downhill approach Canadian Grand Prix? to a corner means you have to drive it quite a bit You never want to stop racing so it wasn’t the best. That What are your thoughts on revising the weekend differently than if it’s an uphill approach and Spielberg said, it was a pretty exciting end to the race so it was good format for Grands Prix? has both of those. It should be fun. to watch it as it happened! Our target is to be part of the As long as there’s a Grand Prix and qualifying session, battle of fighting for points positions so we need to ensure that’s the main thing! Whatever happens, it will be the we don’t have any more problems with the car. We’re same for everyone. I quite like the idea of a practice making definite progress with pace, how the car feels and session late on Friday as it means I won’t have to get up generally with reliability too, so it was frustrating that so early! Let’s see what happens. ROMAIN GROSJEAN RACE DRIVER #8 Welcome Return After seeing his first points for Lotus slip away in Canada, Pastor Maldonado is happy to be heading back to Austria for F1’s first visit since 2003…

What are your thoughts ahead of Austria? How is your morale after two tough races? How is the relationship with the team? I would race on the I know the track, but it was maybe ten years ago when I am very motivated. I think we have some good weekends We all know what we have to do and we are all pushing I last raced there and it will be new for me in an F1 car. ahead of us and there are still so many races to go. The hard. Yes, we can all get frustrated, but ultimately we all moon if there was a I think it should be quite good for the E22. It looks like the European part of the season is very important for us, so want to achieve success so we remain positive. We can see race track there! circuit doesn’t have too many low speed corners and the let’s push hard, do our best and for sure we will be in the how much improvement there has been with pace from the downforce and set-up is similar to Barcelona, which should points soon. car and once we have all the reliability issues sorted we’ll help us. We will work hard to solve the problems we had be regularly fighting for points. Once we’re there, the next in Canada so that we can reach our targets in Austria. I’m Do you like racing in Europe? target is to fight for more points and then podiums. We’ve certainly optimistic Austria will suit us better than the last I like to be racing anywhere! I have raced for many years seen that the Mercedes are not perfect and can be beaten. two rounds. in Europe and so many of the junior categories are there. Even they had reliability issues in Canada. Of course, I would love to race at home too, but racing What were the positives and negatives from anywhere is what you want to do as a race driver. I would Given the start to your season, does your outlook Canada? race on the moon if there was a race track there! change? The main positive was that we were fighting for points, No, I still keep pushing and it’s still possible to achieve easily. The strategy was quite good: Starting on prime What do you remember about your last race in good things this year. We have had a third of the season tyres and planning only one stop. It was difficult in terms Austria? which has been a challenge – a big challenge – but we still of grip at the beginning and we lost some places, which we It was in Formula Renault and I finished on the podium. have two thirds of the year to go with many circuits which expected because the other guys were on super soft tyres. Actually I think I won, but I don’t remember to be honest! should suit our car. You arrive at every track with the target But the pace came and I was competitive. We started 17th It’s a high downforce track. Most of the corners are very of having the best weekend possible and finding as much and were up to eighth place. Then we had a power unit quick, especially in the second sector. It’s a lot of fun to performance from the car and yourself. This does not problem and had to retire. I know we’ve had retirements race there and I’m happy to be going back. change if you’ve had a difficult last weekend in the car. before, but this was particularly difficult as we have really I can’t wait to get out in FP1 in Austria. made progress and we could have finished well despite starting the race from so far back.

PASTOR MALDONADO RACE DRIVER #13 Cutting the Bull… Lotus F1 Team Technical Director explains the special challenges provided by F1’s Austrian return… We raced there from

1997 to 2003, so there’s a How would you categorise the Spielberg Neither driver has driven the track before What are the latest developments for the car certain knowledge bank circuit? as F1 drivers, how does that change our for Austria? we can dip into. The layout requires a medium downforce package for approach? We have a number of aero updates and we have some the car. In terms of demands it’s similar to Bahrain with It biases you towards doing longer runs and much of the more work to do on braking. There is a good chunk of some decent straights and then an infield section with first session will be about letting Pastor and Romain learn time still to be found in the braking zone and the key to medium speed corners. So it’s lower downforce than the circuit. As we haven’t been there for over a decade, unlocking this potential is enabling the latest brake-by- some tracks on the calendar. ’s track surface things like track surface evolution could be a challenge as wire systems to deliver better feedback to the drivers. analysis points to a relatively non-abrasive, smooth we learn how much the track cleans up as the weekend asphalt which is why we will see the soft and super soft progresses and this has an impact on set-up. Where does the focus lie between development allocation once more. of this year’s car and work for 2015? The post Canada debrief can’t have been There are no significant rule changes for 2015 so How much of a challenge is it to understand a pleasant? anything we do with this year’s car is beneficial for new circuit? It’s fair to say we were not happy with our performance next year’s car too. We are learning a lot this year, It can be quite challenging, although in the case of in Canada. We had a number of issues with Pastor’s even if there are tough lessons on occasion. We have Austria we have been before. We raced there from 1997 car over the weekend, emanating both from ourselves faith that there is a lot more to come from the E22 and to 2003, so there’s a certain knowledge bank we can and from Renault Sport F1 whilst Romain struggled will continue to develop. We are well underway with dip into. In particular we have information about driving with race pace and experienced an issue with his the design of the E23 which should be a significant lines which improves the accuracy of our simulations. rear wing. To say we are investigating these issues step forwards, both in performance and in the area of In contrast, with a brand new circuit it’s more thoroughly is an understatement. Pastor’s issue in the reliability which has challenged us and Renault Sport complicated because we have to generate a driving line race was related to a power unit sensor problem. It’s F1 so much at the start of this new generation of rules. to be able to run a simulation and without a real driving only a small component on the car but the issue had big line the simulated corner speeds will not necessarily be repercussions. Pastor was on course to finish strongly 100%. We’ve already got real data for Austria, so we can in the points. With Romain’s car we’ve identified the do a basic simulation quite easily. issue with the wing and taken preventative measures to ensure it won’t happen again. Every time we experience a retirement it hurts every single person at Enstone and all of our partners. We will keep pushing until we return to the exemplary level of reliability we enjoyed over recent seasons. NICK CHESTER TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AN ENGINEER’S VIEW 1 4

SPIELBERG 2 3

5 2 70 1.5 Another decent straight with 8 300 0.3 downhill relatively fast T3 at the end, with an interesting camber to challenge 2 the drivers. Remus Schlossgold E22 SET UP 4 155 2.3 Flat out curve heading towards T8. 1 FRONT WING A reasonable level of front wing will need to be Rauch Flat! carried to help reduce understeer in the long med/high speed corners turn 5 and 6. 8 290 0.2 6 220 3.1 2 REAR WING Simulations show that the rear wing level will be Rindt Both fast and not similar to that of Bahrain/Malaysia. A little more than was used 6 250 2.3 too challenging corners in Montreal – maintain speed 3 SUSPENSION A little bit of everything is needed from the through here to suspension, good traction from turns 2 and 3, a responsive car 3 ensure good top speed for turns 5 and 6. In the past the cars could run extensively A rapid combination. over the kerbs – we will need to asses any changes and adjust on the start finish settings accordingly. Würth Kurve straight. 4 BRAKES First 3 corners are preceded by long straights and we can expect speeds well in excess of 300kph before braking 4 170 2.4 down to these slowish corners which will give the brakes quite a workout. However the rest of the lap is medium to high speed 3 155 2.4 corners with light braking requirements. Overall it’s quite an Undulating longest straight on the easy track for the brakes. 1 track with heavy braking into T2. 5 TYRES Once more it will be the yellow soft and red super soft combination of tyres from Pirelli’s range. Not too many Castrol Edge sustained high-speed corners to stress or overload the rubber. Long straight uphill will make big demands on 3 130 2.4 the power unit, with T1 a reasonably quick GEAR 5 234 3.2 G-FORCE SPEED (km/h) and challenging right hander at the end.

ENGINE SET UP INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE MGU-H FUEL CONSUMPTION

The Spielberg circuit may look simple but there throttle require the MGU-H to recover and deliver

are a number of challenging points for power lots of energy to the ICE to minimize lap time. EASY SEVERE EASY SEVERE EASY SEVERE units. The high altitude will cause the turbo to Likewise the MGU-K will be expected to feed MGU-K BATTERY ENERGY RECOVERY spin at a much higher rate to compensate for the the ICE to deliver extra power, although the low low ambient pressure, while the four straights number of braking points will make it difficult to will mean the ICE runs at full throttle for a high recover significant energy under braking. percentage of the lap. These long periods of open EASY SEVERE EASY SEVERE EASY SEVERE NEXT RACE ROUND 9 BRITISH GRAND PRIX 4-6 JULY 2014 SILVERSTONE

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