Heikki Kovalainen has admitted that Lotus' first Formula 1 car in sixteen years carries a fundamental downforce problem, as he completed his Jerez test slowest on the timesheets and 3.2 seconds down on leader Mark Webber's Red Bull on Friday.
As the famous Lotus name returns to the sport with the 1Malaysia team behind it, Kovalainen drove the car for the first time on Thursday after test driver Fairuz Fauzy began the team's programme on Thursday. With Jarno Trulli set to take over for tomorrow, Kovalainen understands the key problems.
"I think the main issue is the downforce," the former Renault and McLaren driver explained to reporters. "We have not been able to develop the aero package as we should have; we had five months to build the car and everything's been a bit conservative. Before they started to design the car, they had no information about the engine, so cooling and everything is quite conservative.
"For sure, we can improve - just by looking at the car I could probably improve a few things; I'm sure we will be able to do this but it'll just take a little time." With the team's Norfolk-based crew being able to collect more information before the season starts, in Barcelona next week, Heikki knows that time will be the best healer.
"Once everybody in the UK - the design and manufacturing teams - begin working, we'll be able to make big improvements," continued Kovalainen, who crashed at Jerez on Thursday.
"I think it's quite clear that we're lacking downforce compared to the quickest cars. It's not surprising, we expected it - but just looking at the numbers we knew where we were going to be."
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