Trulli Speak

On whether it feels special joining a team with the famous Lotus name:

It is special, given the name of the brand. It gives me also a kind of responsibility because we all are responsible for this brand. We all know where it was, and we all know what is the target. We need to very quickly try to push it to the top and bring it back to where it belongs. It won’t be easy, especially in the beginning, the first five or six races we will be four seconds off, probably. It sounds a lot, but that's the way it is at the moment. Given the limited time they had to design the car and to take it back to the track I think the guys back at the factory have done a great job. Obviously they had to make some compromises, on the weight and the general car performance and technically. But at least we got it ready, we got it running, we got it reliable pretty much and got a lot of mileage in testing. So far we have achieved a great thing. When we look at the results and the laptimes it won’t be nice, so it’s just a matter of time.

On whether he really feels as if he is at the great Lotus team, since this is a reborn version of the team:

Yes, you can feel in the air that there is Lotus behind it. Even though as I say it will be hard at the beginning. I think the intention of everyone behind this project is to take Lotus back where it belongs to. And they also know that it might take some time. So that’s good. At least they are serious about it. If you look at the team they are all professional people, all experienced people, all people who have been working with me in the past, from last year to a few years ago, they all know what it takes. There are no young or new people, they are all experienced so it’s just a matter of time at the moment to really glue everything up and prepare all the departments.

On whether at a smaller team like Lotus he has more personal responsibility or input:

Yes, what I have noticed now compared to the big teams, in the big teams you have all kinds of resources. Once you get there, you have everything ready more or less. And all the driver has to do is drive the car, give some input and hope that someone comes with some bits which make your performance turn around. Here there are limited resources, limited people, and the driver has a big, big influence on the technical direction of the car. Because obviously they are keen to listen to the driver and desperate to get the right direction as soon as possible without having the right data and everything in their hands.

I already saw it during testing, we were struggling and I jumped into the car and I said, this is right, this is wrong. And then in one day we gained a second. I know that when you are so far away…. It is satisfying to work in this way. There is more human input in this team at the moment compared to the big teams. Obviously we are still a long way away from the rest and it will take a long time to catch them up. But so far I can see that at least the driver has a bit more input, it’s satisfying for the driver, although it’s not satisfying being four seconds off.

On Mike Gascoyne, the team director, with whom he has now worked several times:

It’s very simple. Mike is the kind of guy that either you like or you hate. The reason is because he is a very straightforward person who always tells you what he thinks. He’s not the kind of person who is polite or whatever. He thinks, he tells you what he thinks. He wants things done. He doesn’t want to wait, he wants it now. He tells you straight in your eyes what he thinks. Obviously you have to understand the kind of person he is. I prefer that Mike is determined to achieve what he wants, no matter about politics or politeness or whatever. He just wants to get there. So he was the perfect person for this kind of challenge.