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LOTUS - RENAULT (Yes they are actually called Lotus now!)
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Well whatever anyone says, it's never good to lose 4 days with a chassis problem. But they've been topping the times so expectations are high. Thing is, we all know that topping the times means the square root of exactly stuff-all. So did Williams last year (I hear). That's why the teams are all repeating the cliche that "we will only know in qualifying in Melbourne in two weeks time... (blah blah blah!)

Well you know what? There are reasons to believe this could be a good year for Benetton, er I mean LOTUS. Consider that this time last year they were looking in mightily good form. It's true that they fell away badly and only finished 4 points ahead of Force India. But the thing is, that was only because of losing star driver Kubica. He would probably have finished 2nd in Melbourne (I bet Vettel might have found more if Robert had challenged him) and 3rd in Malaysia. From that platform and with that leadership, where would they have ended?

I believe Lotus/Renault's true potential was quite a lot higher than it looked last year. So taking that as the platform for 2012 it looks pretty good. Even more so when the team and drivers have praise for the new car and look happy so they can't be in too bad a shape.

The big question is what Kimi is going to be like. It would be fantastic to have the McLaren-spec Raikkonen, and thankfully there are signs the real Raikkonen (who really left the sport around 2006-07) could be the one who returns. I reckon Lotus and their drivers could be similar to Sauber and Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa in 2005, where Raikkonen situation might be similar to Villeneuve's (though I can't believe there's any way Kimi will be remotely that bad!) I mean he could actually be outperformed by Grosjean at first before asserting himself. I can picture Kimi missing out on quite a few points due to rusty racecraft, a little like with Schumacher. I can actually see him maybe struggling a bit, but he should still get one or two good results this year.

As for Grosjean, I feel he may do better than many expect. He could even have the measure of Kimi (somewhat), especially at first. Romain had no chance in '09 - it wasn't representative and needs to be discounted. I don't know what kind of points he can bank though, which could make him vulnerable to the Force India drivers i the championship.

MY PREDICTION:
Contructors: 5th
Raikkonen: 9th
Grosjean: 11th