Getty Images Lotus team principal Eric Boullier believes five teams will be in contention for victory when the F1 season begins this weekend.
“I think it’s going to be as competitive as ever,” said Boullier ahead of this week’s Australian Grand Prix.
“You can see at least five teams having the potential to win races and it’s getting very tight.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see how the teams can perform on a single lap, but also how they can perform during long stints and on track. More so than last year, it will be important to fight from the front with a good qualifying position and the race pace of our drivers will be important.”
Boullier added the team has improved on one of its major weaknesses from last year without compromising a key strength of their 2012 car:
“I believe we have kept the main strength of the car from last year, which was very conservative on tire wear and degradation, and we’ve proved our capability to deliver one lap pace which is important for qualifying.”
Lotus moved up to fourth place in the constructors’ championship last year and is targeting third this year. Boullier believes that goal is achievable:
“There is a long term plan and a clear road map to the front of the grid,” he said.
“Last year we showed some peaks of good performance and were nearly always at or near the front. I feel that this year we will be even more so and the key element will be to maintain that performance and pace to fight for regular points and podiums.”
-
F1 flashback: Hakkinen, Button’s Monaco win anniversaries are today
May 24, 2013, 6:00 AM EDT
Getty Images
Here’s two more Monaco Grand Prix anniversary wins this date: Mika Hakkinen won for McLaren in 1998, and Jenson Button for Brawn in 2009. Both were routs in their championship-winning seasons. Hakkinen’s 1998 win was relatively uneventful, and marked McLaren’s first win at Monaco since Ayrton Senna’s in 1993. A heavy attrition rate promoted Giancarlo…
-
Getty Images
The previous track record at Charlotte Motor Speedway was shredded by eight drivers during tonight’s qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600, but it was Denny Hamlin who came away with the pole for Sunday night’s event with a speed of 195.624 miles per hour in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin earned his first…
-
Getty Images
Larry Foyt may be earning praise for his management of the team that bears his father’s name. But he makes sure to keep four-time Indianapolis 500 champion A.J. Foyt 100 percent involved in its direction. “Believe it or not, I hardly make a decision that we [both] don’t go over,” Larry said on Thursday at…
-
IndyCar officials announce preliminary details of return to innovation
May 23, 2013, 7:00 PM EDT
Set against a backdrop of the historic cars that have graced Indianapolis Motor Speedway for more than a century, at the IMS Museum, IndyCar’s new leaders described the preliminary plan for innovation to return to the series. The key word here is “preliminary.” Specific details were hard to find in the formal remarks made Thursday…
-
Getty Images
The 2012 United States Grand Prix has been awarded the prestigious Sports Event of the Year award at the SportsBusiness Journal/Daily Business Awards, which was held in New York last night. The race was attended by over 265,000 fans, and the atmosphere was complimented by all of the drivers and teams in Austin. The track…
-
Getty Images
The pressure on Pirelli may have finally tolled as the Italian tire supplier has openly threatened to walk away from Formula One for the first time. After receiving criticism from many teams and drivers for producing tire compounds that were too aggressive, Pirelli agreed to a revision of their current design in time for next…
-
Getty Images
Adrian Sutil has spoken of his delight upon returning to the streets of Monte Carlo following a year out of Formula One. The German driver has enjoyed a good record at the circuit. In 2008, he shocked the F1 establishment by running as high as 4th for Force India, but his race was ruined when…
-
Getty Images
Red Bull Racing may be defending a winning streak at Monaco that stretches back to 2010, but their pace in the Thursday practice sessions has failed to suggest that a fourth consecutive win may be on the cards. However, both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have both downplayed the results, taking the positives out of…
-
Getty Images
The streets of Monte Carlo welcome Formula One for its annual event, attracting the rich and famous from all over the globe for the sport’s jewel in the crown: the Monaco Grand Prix. It is the ultimate test of a driver’s talent behind the wheel and his mental agility, requiring 78 laps of near-perfect precision;…
-
Reuters
What comes to mind first when you think of the Monaco Grand Prix? Money, perhaps? You can’t really blamed for that thought. Formula One’s stature as a billion-dollar enterprise enables it to fit in perfectly with the sophisticated surroundings of Monte Carlo. Or maybe it’s the massive amount of star power that comes in for…
-
Reuters
Ever since its creation in 1929 on the streets of Monte Carlo, the Monaco Grand Prix has rewarded the best of the best. The list of people that have won it multiple times is a veritable galaxy of Formula One stars, past and present: Ayrton Senna, six wins; Graham Hill and Michael Schumacher, five each;…
-
Getty Images
Nico Rosberg completed a sweep of Thursday’s two practice sessions for the Monaco Grand Prix. With a little more than an hour remaining in the second 90-minute free practice session, Rosberg dropped in the weekend’s first 1:14 lap with a lap of 1:14.759 around the streets of Monte Carlo. Lewis Hamilton made it a Mercedes…
-
AP
Watch coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix throughout the weekend on NBC (Sunday, 7:30 a.m. ET), NBC Sports Network and live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra. As Thursday’s second free practice session gets going, we look at the compounds Pirelli has brought to Monaco – the two softest compounds of soft (prime) and supersoft…
-
F1 flashback: Senna, Trulli Monaco win anniversaries celebrated today
May 23, 2013, 7:00 AM EDT
Getty Images
Watch coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix throughout the weekend on NBC (Sunday, 7:30 a.m. ET), NBC Sports Network and live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra. Two historic Monaco Grands Prix occurred on May 23. In 1993, Ayrton Senna took his record sixth and last Monaco victory, while in 2004, Jarno Trulli ended Michael…
-
Getty Images
Nico Rosberg has finished quickest in the first practice session for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Mercedes are expected to excel around the tight and twisting streets of Monaco, with the W04 car having good one-lap pace. Although this result may come as…
-
AP
Dale Jarrett (pictured), Maurice Petty, Tim Flock, Jack Ingram and Fireball Roberts will soon be known as NASCAR Hall of Famers. The five NASCAR legends were voted into the Hall today and will officially be inducted as the Class of 2014 in ceremonies at the Charlotte, N.C.-based Hall next January. The honors for Jarrett and…
-
Getty Images
Qualifying for the second race of all IZOD IndyCar Series doubleheaders this season — which includes the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit (the next race on the schedule following this weekend’s Indianapolis 500), Honda Indy Toronto and Shell/Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston — will be split into two groups. Cars will run in one of two…
-
Don’t overlook E.J. Viso as a part of Andretti’s all-star arsenal at Indy
May 22, 2013, 5:00 PM EDT
Reuters
At Andretti Autosport, Ryan Hunter-Reay’s the defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion. James Hinchcliffe has won two of the first four races this year. Marco Andretti has the legendary surname and is off to the best start of his IndyCar career. Carlos Munoz has stolen some headlines in his rookie Indianapolis 500 appearance with a front…
-
Reuters
Friday’s Freedom 100 for the Firestone Indy Lights (Noon ET, NBC Sports Network) will feature only 11 cars on the starting grid, but there’s still racing’s ultimate form of bragging rights on the line: Victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Headlining the Freedom 100 field is Andretti Autosport’s Carlos Munoz (pictured), who is also on…
-
Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Ed Carpenter and his team hosted reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown in his garage today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Brown got to climb into the cockpit of Carpenter’s No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet. “It’s just good times to come hang out and support Ed for…
