Lotus Renault boss Eric Boullier says he was disappointed that upgrades for Germany didn’t move the team forward, and says it just has to work harder.
Although the car was more competitive than at Silverstone, the true picture was disguised by the fact the rule changes that badly hampered the R31 in the British GP.
“No, it wasn’t the result we were looking for,” said the Frenchman in a team preview. “We came to the Nürburgring with some developments to the car, which gave us higher hopes going into the weekend. Vitaly put in a determined drive, while lady luck did not favour Nick when we was working his way back up the field after falling back to 22nd position.
“It was another point gained for us, but really we were well below par, and it was not the weekend we expected it to be. It was not good enough, and at the Hungarian GP we will try and get back on track, although there will be no significant revisions to the car until after the summer break.”
Boullier says that progress hasn’t been good enough.
“I’ve expected improvement from our car for a number of races now, and we are making improvements, but we have got to get our heads down and make bigger strides. It’s a competitive field out there, with Force India and Sauber also competing in higher positions, so we’ve got to raise our game starting in Hungary.
“I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not satisfied with where we are, no one in the team is. We started the season well, but that feels like a while ago now and we have to face the facts, which are that we’ve been off the pace and we are trying hard to put that right.
“We brought some developments to the car in Germany, which didn’t produce nearly enough. So we are now all eyes forward to Hungary to ensure we have the opportunity to head on our summer breaks on a high.”
Adam Cooper F1 