The Lotus F1 Team missed day one of the pre-season test at Jerez after their new-for-2015 E23 car arrived at the circuit late on Sunday.
The team will now undergo a lengthy build programme during the night and into Monday, with the team hopeful of getting some meaningful running on day three of the test on Tuesday, although they could do some installation runs late on Monday.
Pastor Maldonado was scheduled to run the E23 on Sunday, but he and team-mate Romain Grosjean will be playing catch-up for the team compared to the seven other teams that tested on the opening day in Spain.
Technical Director Nick Chester said the team had been running a tight programme to develop the E23, which will be the first Lotus to be powered by the Mercedes power unit after the team split with Renault at the end of 2014.
“We have been pursuing a very tight and aggressive build programme with the E23 Hybrid which is one of the most technically advanced cars to have come out of Enstone,” said Chester. “We will take to the track with this car as soon as we are ready from an engineering perspective. We’ve fired-up the car at Enstone and we’re now putting everything together ahead of the first laps on track.
“Everyone at Enstone is very positive with what we’ve seen of the E23 Hybrid so far and we’re looking forward to it turning its wheels in anger for the first time later this week.”
