Kovalainen Confirms Major Lotus Updates for Barcelona

Nobody could argue against the fact that Lotus-Cosworth is so far the best of the new-coming F1 teams out there in 2010. However, that doesn't make them any more competitive in relation to the established F1 teams as compared to Virgin or HRT, which is why Mike Gascoyne has prepared a major revamp of his single-seater for the upcoming race in Barcelona.

As all the other teams will do that as well – since the Spanish Grand Prix marks the start of the European season in Formula One – but the guys at Lotus are confident that their updates will help the car gain approximately one second per lap.

Heikki Kovalainen, the driver who seems to score the best times in the T127 in the early rounds of the season, is confident that Lotus' development work will lead to more performing updates as compared to their rivals.

“It is a fairly significant step and a significant turning point for us. If the package delivers what it should do and what it will do, then it will move us further to the front and will take away from the other new teams,” said Kovalainen in an interview with Autosport.

“For sure it is a bigger step than normal, but never underestimate the other teams and what they can do. But I think hopefully it is bigger than normal. We are starting from further back so we have more scope to have bigger improvements, and after that the improvement rate will flatten a little bit.”

“The top teams are finding these last bits that are very difficult. And it will be interesting to see what the other new teams can do. Hopefully we can jump them more there. That is the ideal,” added the Finn.