2014 Season Review: Lotus

The 2014 season saw the Lotus team move down from fourth place to eighth place in the Constructors Championship. After becoming Lotus from Renault in 2012; Lotus became race winners once again with Kimi Raikkonen on the Finn's F1 return. After Raikkonen left the team for Ferrari this season, their driver line-up for the new season featured their existing driver Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado who left the Williams team.

After their driver line-up was heavily debated and even criticised by many pundits and fans of the sport (myself included), Lotus soon realised that it wouldn't be new car parts they would be focusing on, but rather getting their cars just to the chequered flag at the first race of the season.

As with all the Renault powered cars on the grid this season, their prospects of success for 2014 did not look good from pre-season testing. Lotus missed the opening test week in Jerez to continue with the construction of the car but this decision did not work in their favour. Overall, the Lotus E22 completed just 1288km of running in winter testing, the least of any team by a large margin. The car did however gain a lot of interest with its two-tusk nose design which was praised by many technical analysts.

But after two wins in the last two seasons, Lotus were in for their worst beginning to a Formula 1 season, and the future, did not look good. The season started badly for Lotus with a double retirement from ERS failures in Australia, but this was hardly surprising given their performance in the pre-season tests in Jerez and Bahrain.

The biggest surprise was that the two E22's started from twenty first and twenty second places on the grid. This then left many fans of the sport wondering what has happened to the Lotus that we saw in 2013 and wondering if they could improve their performances on track by the first European race of the championship in Spain like the team believed they could do.

In the next few races, similar results followed with Grosjean and Maldonado doing the best they could with the car that was underneath them. In Malaysia, qualifying was once again rain affected but both drivers improved to qualify in seventeenth and sixteenth places, however, in the race Maldonado's power unit let him down once more and failed, whilst Grosjean's car saw the chequered flag in a respectable eleventh place.

It wasn't until Spain which was the first chance for teams to bring significant updates to the race weekends that Renault had also improved the engine mapping software in China to increase power output by up to 40bhp. Lotus ended their point drought at the Circuit de Catalunya with an eighth place finish for Grosjean after he qualified an astonishing fifth place on the grid and in the next race in Monaco, Grosjean once again managed to finish in the points with an eighth place finish.

In the next few races, reliability hit Grosjean 4 times in races. This was a blow to Lotus as Romain looked much stronger than Pastor in the new era of F1. After promising progress was shown earlier in the season, the E22 had an awful mid-season, finishing no higher than twelfth place with either driver until the United States Grand Prix in Austin.

In Austin, Maldonado qualified tenth. The car had good race pace and was mixing with the McLarens and Ferraris and just like in 2013, Maldonado finished in ninth place and scored his first points of the season while Grosjean wasn't far behind just out of the points in eleventh place.

In the last two races of the season, twelfth place was all Lotus could manage, partly down to Grosjean's twenty place grid penalty in Abu Dhabi for excess power unit components, which incurred a drive through penalty in the race to compensate for the lack of the places he could possible to lose on Saturday.

In a season that many fans believed Lotus could build on what they achieved during 2013, Lotus finished a disappointing 8th in the constructors championship, four places back from 2013 and leaving them with an awful lot of work to do to regain back the places they have lost this season in the championship; this time switching to Mercedes power for 2015.

Romain Grosjean 8 points/ 14th in the Driver's Championship

After a crash fuelled 2012 season, Romain Grosjean came out determined in 2013 to prove to everyone he is top class racing driver, who deserves his seat in Formula 1. After several podiums and a chance of a race win in Japan, Grosjean may be forgiven for thinking that the 2014 rule changes may have helped his chances in order to get that first race win under his belt.

Grosjean has proved on several occasions that he is a capable driver of strong race finishing positions, but 2014 has been a season that may have just pushed him that one bit too far. This season Grosjean has retired six times from nineteen races, with his average qualifying position of fifteenth place and also Grosjean being the fourth driver receiving the most penalties this season with six.

He has however outscored his team mate Maldonado as expected by eight times to two and been the more impressive driver of the pair. His five place during in qualifying in Spain has been massively overlooked and should be considered one of the performances of the season. A highest finish of two eighth places in Spain and Monaco has summed up quite a disappointing year for the Frenchman compared to Maldonado's ninth place finish in Austin.

On many occasions this season, Grosjean has not been shy of venting his frustration with the Lotus car on the team radio. All of this frustration did raise speculation about where he could end up for next season. Grosjean announced before the end of the season that he will be driving for Lotus again and is confident that with the team switching from Renault to Mercedes power next season that they will slowly improve.

But such has been the struggles of the Lotus E22, it just has not come together in 2014 for Grosjean and it has been a tough season for him. But he has been able to consistently outperform his team mate during the course of the season and show that he hasn't lost any of the talent that we saw in 2013 and this will only boost his confidence for next season; their first with Mercedes power and hoping that remaining with the team for 2015 will bear fruit.

Pastor Maldonado 2 points / 16th in Driver's Championship

Just like 2013, it has been a mixed season for Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan joined from Williams after three tough seasons [despite a win in 2012] and would have been hoping to show his true potential at Lotus.

A driver that has never been the most popular in the paddock, often labelled as “Crashtor;” when it was announced that he was to drive for Lotus due to a very large financial backing, once again, the 'abuse' for Maldonado started.

However, he has been outscored by his team mate Grosjean as expected by eight times to two and been the least impressive driver of the pair. A highest finish of ninth place in Austin compared to Grosjean's two eighth place finishes in Spain and Monaco has summed up quite a sub-standard year for Maldonado.

In the first half of the season, Maldonado was outperformed by Grosjean consistently. After sending Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez flipping through the air during the Bahrain GP, it seemed as though the Mexican driver wanted payback at July's British GP. Both drivers made contact, similar to the situation in Bahrain which sent Maldonado flying into the air, but unlike Gutierrez, he managed to not roll over. If anything, this has been Maldonado's highlight of this season.

After being at the bottom of the Drivers championship in the first half of the season, Maldonado never seemed close to really securing any points for the team. But he eventually lifted himself managed to find a bit of consistency and in Austin scored his first points of the season with a ninth place finish.

Just like his team mate; Maldonado also retired six times this season but has an average qualifying position of eighteenth place compared to his team mate. He maybe unsurprisingly had the most number of penalties this year with ten to his name. But even with a disappointing car that had no choice of improving over the season, Maldonado has had an awful season and his only Formula One win in Spain 2012 seems a one-off in my opinion.

The second best result of his career so far is a fifth place finish in Abu Dhabi in 2012 which seems to back up my perspective that Maldonado does not deserve to be at Lotus, hasn't got the talent or the standard required to succeed at the team and is in the sport for the money he brings; plain and simple.

It has been a very tough season for Maldonado, but after being secured by Lotus for 2015, can next season be any different? I wouldn't place any money on him improving at all and next season will be a crucial one for him if he wants to remain in the sport as a driver and not as a driver who brings the budget needed to help a team's finances.

It is clear for all to see that Grosjean has completely outperformed Maldonado this season and after securing the team's best points finishes this season at Spain and Monaco, some may be wondering and quite flabbergasted why the Lotus team have opted for Maldonado next season.

At the moment, both Lotus and Maldonado have a long road ahead of them before they can return to the top step of the podium and for me personally, I just don't see this happening unless 'Lady Luck' hits Maldonado during the 2015 season. If Maldonado cannot demonstrate why he has been signed for the Lotus team based on his 'talent' rather than the money he brings next season, then he should be shown the door and replaced by a driver who can deliver the results that Lotus need on the track.

In conclusion, 2014 has not been the year that Lotus, Grosjean or Maldonado needed. It is clear that the departure of James Allison's to Ferrari in 2013 and also Eric Boullier leaving the team for McLaren was a step back for Lotus.

With the financial status of Lotus still unknown within the paddock even though the team have stated during the course of the season that everything is okay compared to last season for example even Team Principal Gerard Lopez in the latter stages of the season was one of 3 team principles to threaten to boycott a couple of races in protest of the prize equity they received from the FIA. But this did not come to fruition.

It is also clear that Lotus have made a fundamental mistake with their car this season and it has backfired on them completely. For the 2015 season, all teams (except Ferrari) have to change their nose design to comply with new rules.

Whether this is the change they need is doubtful in my view and they will probably need to adapt the rest of the aero as a result alongside making the most of switching to Mercedes power units (which are the best on the grid by a country mile), Lotus have a lot of work ahead of them during the winter break if they are to come back fighting during the 2015 season like they would want to.

If Lotus can bring everything together and give both of their drivers a competitive and consistently reliable car, I get the feeling that they could be back next year in the top 6 teams. The future can only be bright for Lotus, but sadly, it looks as though they've got a lot of hard work ahead of them before they can be fighting for victories once more. And I do truly believe that Grosjean is the best option and driver that Lotus have under their disposal to achieve this objective in the near future.

Sarah Jones