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Team Lotus Aim for Point Finishes Starting Barcelona

Team Lotus did not enjoy the best season start in Formula 1 this year – well, that may be an overstatement, considering that they're only an F1 team since the beginning of 2010 – but the squad's technical chief Mike Gascoyne insisted he expects points finishes from his drivers from as early as the Spanish Grand Prix.

While yet to pose a real threat to their rivals for Q2 entry, Team Lotus is apparently preparing a major aerodynamic package for the race in Barcelona, where the T128 will finally feature a first-spec version of the blown diffuser (a part that has already been debuted by the majority of the F1 field in 2011).

Our major update is coming along for Barcelona, which will be a major update for the diffuser and the rear end of car,” admitted Gascoyne, according to the team's official website. “It will bring quite a lot of performance to the car, and we've got some other smaller updates for Barcelona [too]. And then also smaller updates for Turkey as well.

The Turkish Grand Prix is scheduled two weekends from now, after which the F1 field will leave for Barcelona for the race on May 20-22. As far as Gascoyne's expectations go, the Englishman will aim for Top 10 finishes from that point onwards.

I think if we look at scoring points, we have to look at Barcelona onwards,” he confirmed. “The updates to the car are going to be very significant.

The new aero updates in store for Barcelona will also improve the behavior of the Pirelli tires, in a sense that they will reach the optimum operating temperature – especially in cold weather conditions – faster. This is a problem that some other teams have tackled as well this past few races, one of them being the mighty Ferrari.

I think that is something we are getting on top of. Coming up for the next few races won't be a problem,” added the Team Lotus official.
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