Lotus ready to prolong E20 developmentas they close in on title battle

© Lotus F1 Team, LAT Photographic

Lotus are prepared to fight for the title until the very end according to technical director James Allison, who confirmed that the team intends to develop their cars much further in to the season than usual.

With just a handful of months between the last race of a season and the first of the new year, teams frequently halt development on their current cars before the end to focus on next years.

Allison says Lotus won't be so quick to switch development following strong results which have thurst the team into title contention.

"One of the things that our team has got a little bit wrong in the last couple of seasons is that we have been too ready to switch over to the new car a little bit too soon," he told Sky Sports.

"So we started this year consciously intending to develop this one a bit longer than normal."

He's also confident that Kimi Raikkonen, who sits 48 points behind leader Fernando Alonso with nine races remaining, has what it takes to become a two-time champion this year

"Why not? There are an awful lot of points for coming first and there are a lot of races to be done. The lead is minuscule compared to the points available," he added.

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