Lotus aiming for fourth

The Enstone-based team launched their new E20 challenger on Sunday, with the car being unveiled via an online video.

Lotus, who competed as Lotus Renault GP last year, could only secure fifth place in the team standings in 2011, finishing a long way behind fourth-placed Mercedes.

And Lopez now says that his team must start closing the gap to the front-runners, and has set fourth place in this year's constructors' table as his goal.

"We're trying to bring the car up to the front of the pack. We are trying to aim for fourth as a reasonable goal for this season," Lopez said.

The E20 adheres to new rules restricting the positioning of exhaust outlets, meaning they have been required to take a step back from last year's design which featured the pipes exiting at the front of the sidepods.

Innovation

Like the vast majority of the other 2012 cars, the E20 features a 'step' in the nose to comply with new safety regulations, but team principal Eric Boullier hopes several more subtler variations can pay off.

Boullier said: "It's true that the team's reputation is good in terms of innovation and we brought through the last years some nice ones, and some more delicate ones, but definitely we have some this year.

"My biggest hope is to bring this positivity back again and to make sure this team is again at the front of the grid and for many years."

Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will occupy the two race seats during the season, an entirely new driver line-up that Boullier has high hopes for.

He added: "In the case of Kimi, we clearly wanted a driver with experience. He's been with big teams and has huge experience. He's eager and he's fast.

"And for Romain, we want to nurture a young driver with great talent. He achieved a lot in the junior categories. We monitored him a lot and we know what he's capable of."