Lotus "deserves" much better results

Although a switch to Mercedes engines has lifted its form this year, after a disastrous campaign with Renault in 2014, the Enstone-based outfit has endured its fair share of frustration.

Despite strong pace at several races, it is only sixth in the F1 constructors' standings – with its best results being several seventh places for Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

Potential untapped

Gastaldi says the team has been left frustrated about not being able to capitalise on its recovery, but is hopeful it can yet turns things around.

"To be honest, the frustration is still there – every race has been a different animal," Gastaldi told Motorsport.com.

"We expected a very good performance since test one; and we have enough skill and experience with the people in Enstone to create a fantastic car. If we give them the tools to work with, we know they can produce good cars.

"But the other side is that at every race something happened in FP1, FP2, qualifying or the race. And drivers, although very good, experienced as well, they have had incidents. These are unpredictable situations but is part of the game and part of racing.

"Having said that, yes we have made an improvement but it is not what we deserve, and not what we are working for. We can do much better - we know that.

"We can score points with both drivers. They can score despite situations race by race. The frustration is still there for every single person in Enstone."

Core car good

While Lotus' rate of development has been hampered by its limited budget, Gastaldi thinks that the strong baseline of its E23 means there is potential to improve.

"To be honest, the car is very good," he said. "And still we try to look for improvements every week. After we go back to Enstone after every race, we try to learn what happened, what we have done, what we should have done, and what we should have not done.

"We try to improve with the tools we have. Obviously we could do much better, but last year was too difficult for us. This year we have the Mercedes engine, it is a different car, and obviously totally new for us.

"But the people from Mercedes have been great. They are very professional, very helpful, and I think obviously we have improved. But we can do better – that is for sure."