Despite the fact that they were the last team to get confirmation from the FIA for the upcoming 2010 Formula One championship season, the new Lotus F1 Racing team believe that they have made a lot of progress in regard to their new entry and as a result are hoping to be the most competitive of the four new teams that will line up on the Bahrain grid come next March.

The team’s technical director, Mike Gascoyne, who is no newcomer to the sport after lengthy stints at Toyota, Jordan and Renault, is keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground when it comes to their performance against the already established teams but is hoping to slowly reduce the gap as the season progresses.

"We are late to the party but we've made good progress,” he said on the BBC. "Our initial aim is to be the best of the new teams and we are already on our way to achieving that goal. We have to be realistic but our aim during 2010 will be to head the group of new entries and continually reduce the gap between our performance and those of the established teams."