Mike Gascoyne is anticipating a good weekend for Team Lotus at the British Grand Prix after the team has a disappointing race last time out in Valencia.
“I think all the signs are that Silverstone will be a good race for us,” said the Team Lotus Chief Technical Officer. “It's one of our two home Grand Prix so it is a chance to race in front of our families and friends and after we slipped a little in Valencia it gives us the opportunity to get back to the level of performance that we know we can extract from this year's car.
“I do not think the rule changes we will see at Silverstone (banning the use of off-throttle blown diffusers) will have a great effect on the grid order but we have been making preparations for this weekend both in the wind tunnel and in some of the work we have been doing at the straightline test we are running in the UK on Monday and Tuesday this week, so we know what to expect.”
Jarno Trulli thinks that the new Pirelli tyres and DRS will have an interesting impact on the race at Silverstone this weekend: “The British Grand Prix is one of the classic races and one where I have always had a lot of support,” said the Italian. “Throughout my career the British fans have been very kind to me and since joining Team Lotus the support in the UK has been ever better, so it's great to be heading back there in the green and yellow for the second year.
“There are a few obvious changes this time around – we have the Pirelli tyres which have made our strategic decisions critical all season, and with the probable performance differential between the soft and the hard tyres I think qualifying could be pretty tight. Managing the degradation of both compounds will be important all weekend, and if there is a big gap in laptimes between them that could play into our hands – we'll see.
“The effect of DRS will also create more overtaking on Sunday than we've had for a long time, so hopefully we can take advantage of that and keep taking the battle to the cars ahead.”
Heikki Kovalainen is also anticipating a good weekend: “Silverstone is our second home race and it's one of the great drivers' tracks so it's always a race I look forward to,” he said. “There's obviously a huge amount of history around the whole place and the whole team is looking forward to getting back to another track where there will be big support for us in the stands over the whole weekend.
“The track itself is a good challenge from inside the cockpit. The sector through Copse is taken at over 280kmh and then as you come into Maggots and Becketts it's all about staying committed and keeping the car balanced through the whole section, right until the flat-out run up to Stowe.
“Overtaking was always pretty tricky at Silverstone but the way the tyres are behaving this year and with DRS I think we'll see a busy race, particularly with the compounds Pirelli are bringing. Whatever happens it'll be a great weekend!”
