Acting team boss Gerard Lopez expects Lotus to be fully competitive in 2014.
Amid rumours of financial strife, the Enstone team sat out the opening Jerez test, and when the E22 finally made its public debut in Bahrain on Wednesday, it clocked the slowest time and a mere 8 laps.
Team owner Lopez, however – acting as team boss while the McLaren-departed Eric Boullier’s successor is found – said Lotus was right to have voluntarily skipped Jerez.
“I predicted there would not be much to learn because of (technical) problems, so we saved a lot of money by staying home,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.