Lotus promises a car to match Kimi’s wishes

| Source: ts.fi @ racingnerds.com | Translation courtesy of Nicole

Last year Kimi Räikkönen came 3rd in the WDC-serie and Lotus came 4th in the WC-serie. Immediately after that Lopez said that the goal is to do even better in 2013.

Lopez leaned on Lotus-premise’s wall in his laidback style shining with satisfaction after Bahrain GP.

“I’m now even happier than I was a year ago here when the endresult was exactly the same. We have now proved that we have a strong car for every track. I strongly believe that we can renew these positions in the future also with performances of the same level,” Lopez smiled to Turun Sanomat.

“Kimi is – as usual – a fantastic racing driver in every race and for Romain Grosjean the 3rd position was an even bigger victory.”

“Kimi also had a difficult weekend. I rank him really high also in the sense of how he always bounces back in races after difficulties. Kimi is an unbelievable driver, he is equally good every weekend and it’s guaranteed that he is in stitch in every race – despite his starting positions,” Lopez praised.

What kind of chances do Räikkönen and Lotus have in challenging Vettel and Red Bull for the championship?

“I believe they are good. It’s up to us to give Kimi the best chances. As long as the car is the way he wants every weekend his chances to drive for victory are good.”

“We all know that in order for Kimi to win Vettel he needs races where he can score more points than him. It’s a tough challenge but we are up for it and hopefully we get help from above in the form of hot weathers, since they suit our car so well,” Lopez said.

Kimi speaks up in drivers’ meeting about Perez
| Source: Heikki Kulta’s Blog from Bahrain |

Lotus-team’s radio traffic in Bahrain GP was very two-folded. You could hear blabbering in the radio all the time from car number 8, whereas they could have played the song ‘Sound of silence’ in car number 7’s radio.

Romain Grosjean was extremely nervous in the cockpit. The endresult rewarded the man’s spectacular battle – and hopefully brings back some patience in his mind.

Kimi Räikkönen’s performance compensated once again for everything that has been said. When they put new tires in Kimi’s car, Kimi snapped after getting back to the track that it’s sliding a bit – and banged at once the fastest lap so far in the race.

The weekend as a whole was just as difficult for Räikkönen as China was. Now the car wasn’t damaged but the quali-speed disappeared and on the racing day he got an annoying allergic reaction which fortunately didn’t disturb his actual race performance.

Räikkönen clashed with Sergio Perez in China. It bugged the Finn so much that Räikkönen talked for the first time during his whole F1-career in Bahrain’s driver-meeting .

Räikkönen asked Charlie Whiting if a penalty would be handed for the crash. Based upon what I heard, three drivers were of the opinion that Perez should be penalized, but the rest were silent. Whiting replied that the jury did the right thing in China when they didn’t hand out penalties for that incident.

That’s that then – and I’m sure that the silence will continue in the following races also. Räikkönen can now focus on what he does best – drive for the championship with his killing consistency, which so far has produced 21 races with scored points in a row and four podiums from the last seven races.