Lotus F1 Team
Lotus's Romain Grosjean is hoping for a better performance as he heads to his favourite circuit for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Grosjean qualified eighth in Australia but slipped back to tenth in the race.
"Sepang is probably my favourite track of the whole season," he said.
"I first raced there in 2008 as part of the GP2 Asia Series and I really loved the circuit. It’s nice and wide, with fast flowing corners and a lot of undulation which makes it great fun to drive. The last corner is a tricky one, but I enjoy everything about racing there. Well, maybe not the heat and humidity, but at the end of the day it’s just another challenge for the drivers!"
The Frenchman is eager to prove that his disappointing showing in Australia was a one-off.
"It’s a shame as everything looked positive after qualifying in the morning, but in the race something felt wrong with my car. I sat down with my engineers to analyse where the problem came from and we hopefully will be able to perform better in the future," he explained.
"The car felt so good at times over the weekend, but then at other times it wasn’t where I wanted it to be. It meant that the race felt long and pretty difficult for me. We know that Albert Park can be a tricky circuit to understand and the weather certainly didn’t help us. It was very frustrating and I’m disappointed for the team and for myself as I wanted to start the season with a strong result."
"But I’ll sit with the engineers and work out how best to improve for the race ahead, and we’ll work hard to achieve the maximum, as always. If the car is capable of being on the podium then I want to be there."
Grosjean spun off in wet conditions during the race in 2012 but he feels that the Lotus E21 is a strong wet weather package.
"Last year it was difficult for sure, but we’ve made some good improvements in our wet performance which we were able to show in the difficult conditions in Australia. This means I’m confident we can put on a good show no matter what the weather."
