Lotus has overcome a serious chassis flaw to lead the field as the final pre-season test began at Barcelona.
The former Renault team had to sit out last week’s running at the Circuit de Catalunya as designers grappled to fix a problem with the front suspension mounting.

“The mounting of the suspension is now the strongest part of the car,” an unnamed team member is quoted by SID news agency.

At the end of his return to action on Thursday, Romain Grosjean was quoted by France’s Auto Plus: “It (the E20) feels the same, there’s not much difference really.”

Indeed, the revised car is 1 kilogram heavier, but the biggest issue is the four lost days of testing, which after an FIA clarification cannot now be made up.

“To miss four days is not ideal as suddenly we have to try to work twice as hard to catch up,” continued Grosjean.

“It’s true that it’s not great, but it’s not as problematic as it might have been.”

He is referring to the fact that, so far, the Lotus appears intrinsically fast.

Asked if the E20 felt as good around Barcelona’s demanding layout as it had at Jerez last month, the reigning GP champion enthused: “Yes, exactly the same.

“You can trust the car, push it, play with it.

“You can attack, and if you attack too much, you know what will happen — if you have understeer, you know that by attacking less, you’ll have less understeer.

“On this aspect, the car is very good.”

1982 world champion Keke Rosberg told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3 that while the Lotus looks as good in Barcelona as it had at Jerez, it is still not clear if it will be able to compete against F1′s regular top teams.

Auto Motor und Sport quotes Grosjean as saying: “I think there are a couple of teams ahead of us — Red Bull and McLaren look very strong.

“Behind them, it’s a lot closer than it was before.”

However, amid F1′s now extremely limited track testing regime, there is no ignoring the four lost days of running.

Asked if he is ready for 2012, Grosjean said according to Finland’s Turun Sanomat: “I have to be.

“Of course, the more time you have with your car, the better you feel. However, it is what it is.

“We have this four days prior to Melbourne and that’s better than nothing,” he added.

* Caterham had to replace Heikki Kovalainen with his teammate Vitaly Petrov on Thursday, as the Finn recovered at his nearby hotel with food poisoning.

F1 should take a new approach to team orders, Christian Horner has told a German news magazine.

Just last month, Red Bull’s team boss backed the FIA’s current ban by insisting that “team orders are wrong”.

The Briton has now told Focus: “It is a regime that should definitely be discussed again and clarified.”

After 2002, the FIA banned team orders due to the furore sparked by Rubens Barrichello reluctantly moving aside to allow his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher to win the Austrian grand prix.

In more recent weeks, Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel collided from the lead in Turkey, before the team was embroiled in a controversy surrounding the transfer of a new wing from Webber’s car to Vettel’s.

Horner insists that Webber and Vettel are treated equally, but admitted that 23-year-old Vettel is obviously a longer-term prospect.

“Mark only has two, or at the most three years still in him, but in Sebastian there are ten, eleven, twelve.

“So when you talk about the future, then it is obviously Sebastian who – hopefully – will spend many years with the team,” he said.

Ferrari insists it would only “waste time” to respond to Max Mosley’s latest controversial claim.

As Ferrari celebrates its 800th grand prix in Turkey this weekend, the former FIA president is quoted by British newspapers as saying Luca di Montezemolo last year urged him to abuse his power and fix the outcome of the double diffuser appeal case.

“He was on the phone every day saying, ‘you have got to sort the Court of Appeal out and make sure we win’,” Mosley, referring to Ferrari’s charismatic president, is quoted by the Daily Mail.

“He didn’t put it as baldly as that but that is what he said.  I said, ‘Luca, I’m sorry, but first of all they wouldn’t take any notice and secondly I am not going to do it’,” he added.

A spokesman for the famous Maranello based team responded: “We don’t want to make any comment.  It is better to look ahead and not waste time talking about what is – luckily – old and gone.”

With 70-year-old Mosley indeed departed and the sport generally enjoying Jean Todt’s new regime, one team boss in Turkey insisted that the good work of the former FIA president is not forgotten.

As Williams’ Adam Parr told reporters that the Grove based team recorded a small profit in 2009, he credited Mosley for the team’s mere survival.

Referring to rule changes including the testing ban and long-life components, he is quoted by The Times: “Whatever you say about Max, the only possibility of an independent formula one team existing is because of what he did.”

(GMM)

Epsilon Euskadi has a better chance of winning a spot on the formula one grid now that Max Mosley has departed.

That is the suggestion of Carlos Gracia, the head of Spain’s motor racing federation.

He told the Marca sports newspaper that the Spanish outfit has the “best facilities” of the other hopefuls but still missed out on a 2010 debut to HRT, Virgin and Lotus.

“When the old FIA granted the licenses to be in formula one it was done with haste and with not accurately assessing the infrastructure.

“I think and I hope that now it will be different,” added Gracia, referring to the appointment of Jean Todt as the new FIA president.

1996 world champion Damon Hill, who acted as a steward in Monaco last weekend as part of a Todt initiative, also backs the sport’s new regime.

“I think we’ve come through a phase in formula one history that has been quite turbulent,” he told GP Week.

“Now things seem to have settled down and we’re focusing again on racing.  That’s the way it should be.

“Before, it was like having a film director who wanted to be in his own film,” added Hill.

(GMM)

Apr.20 (GMM) Norbert Haug on Tuesday is quoted as applauding the better environment in formula one this year.

After his long reign and the bitter political war of 2009, Max Mosley has been replaced as FIA president by Jean Todt.

There had been concerns about the Frenchman’s appointment due to his links with Ferrari and his often belligerent attitude in running the Italian team.

And it was believed that former candidate Ari Vatanen was supported by many of the teams because of his vocal opposition to Mosley, while Todt was viewed as the continuation of the Briton’s unpopular regime.

But Mercedes’ Haug told the German news agency DPA: “There is a constructive atmosphere now. I hope the cooperation goes on.”

For now, the scandals of the past years have quietened, but Haug is not expecting a perpetual peace. “There will be more hard fighting in the future,” he predicted.