Pastor Maldonado is confident that Lotus can enjoy a more successful and competitive campaign in 2015 if it can learn from the mistakes made in the last F1 season.
After winning grands prix in 2012 and 2013, Lotus dropped towards the back of the field in 2014, scoring just ten points thanks to the uncompetitive nature of the E22 car.
However, the team has renewed faith for the 2015 season, with Romain Grosjean saying that he felt a positive step forwards with the new car during testing. Maldonado is similarly optimistic, believing that Lotus can be far more competitive this time around.
“It’s going to be a very interesting season for us,” Maldonado said. “We’ve been working very hard through the winter to improve the performance of the cars, and I’m very happy to be back again to drive.
“We are hoping to have much better performance than last year for sure. We’ve been working quite hard to improve some of the problems we had.
“You need to learn from the mistakes as a team and start from there.”
Maldonado said that the goal for 2015 is to get the team back up the grid and into the points, having only joined for the miserable 2014 campaign after three years at Williams.
“We are always high-spirited, and we must be very competitive,” he said. “Every time we go out on track, we must deliver 100% which is very important.
“We expect the E23 to be a much more competitive car than last year. Very solid in terms of reliability, speed and performance, and very consistent through the season.
“My goal is to get the team back to where it was before I came here. We have the tools, we have everything in the right place to be competitive again and to win. This is the main target again: to win.”
