Gerard Lopez: “We wanted to bring the very best standards in Formula 1 to Enstone”

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Today at the Marina Bay Circuit Gerard Lopez was invited to the official FIA press conference, which gave him the chance to set out his objectives for the Lotus Renault GP team…

We have heared about new facilities and new investment in the team - can you tell us a little bit more about that?
GL: Yes, we wanted to bring the very best standards in Formula 1 to Enstone; it had been missing a couple of things. One was the wind tunnel, which was still only 50 per cent scale. The second one was the driver simulator and then also a couple of logistical areas so we have decided essentially to expand the factory. Improve the wind tunnel up to 60 per cent, which is the maximum allowed and build the new simulator.

Is that really state-of-the-art or even better than everyone else's?
GL: I think everybody else that is a state-of-the-art team has the 60 per cent tunnel so I think that is matching essentially the best. On the simulator, as far as we know, it is probably going to be one of the very best simulators in the business.

Are there plans for further investment?
GL: We have to invest every day essentially, just because it is a Formula 1 team so things become obsolete quite quickly. I think we have maxed out in terms of personnel. When we took over there were about 480 people. There are 520 I believe now, so we increase that number. The investments will continue essentially as much as we need to, to try and be where we want to be, which is a top three team in Formula 1.

Your third driver is the new GP2 champion Romain Grosjean - what are your plans for him?
GL: It's a question that I need to take from a different angle, also of a management company that manages his career. I think the plans for a GP 2 winner, especially one that wins it in such a convincing manner, is to be in Formula 1. We are going to try and help him sit in a Formula 1 car next year.

You were in a difficult position until quite recently of having five drivers for two cars potentially…
GL: And more. There's people that are interested just in case. But right now we have a commitment to Robert (Kubica). He has done amazing things for the team. We know what he is capable of and I think any team would take him if he is capable of delivering the same thing. Our commitment is to try and see if he can come back and we will wonder about anything else afterwards.

What do you think of Sebastian Vettel's performances this year - don't you think that his domination harmed the sport a little bit and would you want him in your team?
GL: I would concur – not trying to be boring – but I think they have the best car and they have somebody who can use it to the maximum, so he deserves to be where he is. I actually know him quite well for a long time already, so I can pretty much tell you that he deserves to be where he is today. And I will say the same thing as far as the drivers go: we have drivers that we like but he's a great guy.

On the one side we are hearing about massive investments as we heard about early on; on the other side we're hearing stories of doom and gloom about bank loans and bankruptcies…
GL: It's been one of the surprises for me in Formula 1. The fact that any time we have a new driver, any time we announce something, any time I take a trip to Brazil or Russia or whatever, suppose I'm looking for money for the team.

The fact is that we're involved in a lot of businesses. This one, as a matter of fact, is one that we hope is going to be break-even at some point in time. It's not but it's not one that needs to make money for us. We make money somewhere else. I used to answer this giving examples and so on.

To be honest, I don't care any more because if it was reality we wouldn't be there for a long time. I think the team that we took over had about 480 people. We saved those jobs and added about forty jobs to those. Facts speak for themselves.

As I said, I used to get quite angry every time I would pick up something like that. Now it's almost like crying wolf and nobody cares. The fact is that the facts are there: we are investing, we're adding sponsors. Our drivers, whenever they get called pay drivers, I actually feel bad for them, not for us because at the end of the day, there is no driver that I think or I hope could bring enough money to actually carry this kind of team forward. I find it disrespectful to those guys. I used to find it disrespectful to us, to be honest with you. Now I don't any more so now what we do is we get on with the things that we have to do.

We make the investments that we have to make and at the end of the day we will see – in terms of results – what will be in the future and hopefully we will be wherever our investments carry us, which is to be one of the top three teams.