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It is not just the Rosberg-Hamilton duo who will benefit from this move, although it seems at this point they do not even need it. The two are currently on the top of the drivers’ standings: Hamilton leads the pack with 126 points, and close on his tail, with 116, is teammate Nico Rosberg who successfully chased down Hamilton’s lead with back-to-back wins at Spain and Monaco.
The CEO of Lotus, Matthew Carter, announced in the news in an interview this week. The power units Mercedes is using are evidently far superior to those of their competitors, and while this is evinced from the competition itself, it is a sentiment echoed by many across the sport – including Ferrari’s own team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, who when interviewed ealrier this year openly admitted to the fact that their power units were superior to those at Ferrari, this being a possible reason why Ferrari have not had as many wins as they could have with the racing talent of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari have, however, found themselves on the podium every single race this year.. each time with Mercedes, who won both drivers’ and constructors’ championships in 2014.
It is a moment of celebration for Grosjean, Maldonado, Massa, Bottas, Perez, Hulkenberg and their teams– Mercedes engines are also used by Lotus, Williams and Force India, and they will receive the updgraded power units. Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari were each given 32 tokens this year for upgrades and improvement, with the Silver Arrows leaving 7 of them for changes during the season.
Although Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer at Williams has said he does not think Williams are in a position to win races in 2015 (they have only won one race in the last 11 years), Lotus CEO Carter is positive of a ‘strong performance’ at the Canadian Grand Prix, and says he believes they can be faster than Red Bull, and the “fourth fastest car there”, although Lotus had no points at Monaco. He also mentioned “upgrades with brake cooling”.
Lotus’ Grosjean is 10th in the drivers’ standings with 16 points – 110 behind leader Hamilton, and his teammate Pastor Maldonado is at the bottom with no points.
