The Lotus E20 Car Launch

The E20 will be given a brief demonstration run at Jerez on Monday before testing begins on Tuesday.

Kimi adamant Lotus can build a winning F1 car

Kimi Raikkonen is adamant Lotus is capable of building a winning car, as the team unveiled its 2012 challenger to the public on Sunday.

The Finn, the 2007 world champion with Ferrari, is returning to grand prix racing with Lotus after having left the sport at the end of 2009 to compete in the World Rally Championship.

Lotus, racing under the Renault name until last year, won its last race in the 2008 season with Fernando Alonso and has struggled to be competitive since.

Raikkonen is confident, however, that the team has what it takes to return to winning ways.

“I think these people know how to build a good car, and even the biggest teams cannot produce a winning car every year,” said Raikkonen during the launch of the E20.

“They are very capable people and they have a good feeling about things and they’re pushing hard so hopefully we will get good results.”

The former world champion said he is not nervous about his return to racing despite an absence of over two years.

“Not really,” said Raikkonen, who drove a two-year-old car last month in preparation for his return. “It will be something slightly different to what it used to be when I was in Formula 1 before – with a different team and different regulations, but everybody’s different. For some people it’s more difficult to get used to new stuff.

“And it depends a lot on the car – if you have a good car it makes your life easier than if you have an average car. I was pretty happy after the first test we did two weeks ago. It felt pretty normal already.

“I think it will be okay but before the first race it’s really difficult to say still. We’ll wait and see but I’m happy with how everything is going.”

Lotus aims for fourth in standings

Lopez said he hoped the team could make up for the false start of 2011 and start making progress with the E20, which will be driven by F1 returnees Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

“The hopes are to be able to get one season together and do what we were expecting last year,” he said.

“We hope to have a strong car, and have strong drivers, one of which is of course an ex-world champion. We hope to bring the car up to the front of the pack and probably try to aim for fourth as a reasonable goal for this season.”

The car is the first from the Enstone team to bear the full Lotus name after the end of the dispute over the use of the brand in F1.

“We’re obviously extremely proud that finally the Lotus name is a clear concept for everybody in Formula 1 now,” Lopez added.