Eric Boullier has spoken of his frustration at Lotus's failure to convert the E20's undoubted pace into two-car points finishes so far in 2012.
Lotus chief says team need to sustain pace throughout the race
Eric Boullier has spoken of his frustration at Lotus's failure to convert the E20's pace into two-car points finishes so far this season ahead of the fourth round of the campaign in Bahrain.
The Enstone-based outfit have been one of several teams to make a clear step forward from the end of 2011 so far this year, however despite consistently strong qualifying performances, the team have still yet to finish higher than fifth in a race.
In parallel, drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean have still to finish inside the top 10 together at the end of Sunday - Raikkonen having nosedived out of the points late on in China last weekend on badly-worn tyres while his team-mate took sixth.
This trend has left Team Principal Boullier with a feeling of disappointment, and the Frenchman insists the team need to rectify the situation this weekend.
"I spoke about frustration before China and I think this is what I feel the most at the moment. We've only been scoring with one car in the first three races," he said.
"When you look at the classification in Shanghai, McLaren, Red Bull, Sauber and Williams all had both their drivers in the top ten.
"This is really what we should be aiming for in Bahrain."
With Sauber and Mercedes having finished on the podium in the last two races, Lotus currently sit in sixth place in the standings - a position Boullier doesn't want to be for long.
"I believe the Constructors' Championship classification does not reflect our true level of performance," the Frenchman added.
"Ten laps before the end of the race in China, we were still second and sixth, and looking quite strong. We need to keep this level of performance until the chequered flag."
Boullier does, however, see plenty of positives from the team's start to the season and thinks they definitely are competitive enough to finish on the podium should they put everything together on race day.
"Kimi's position on the grid [in China] was his best so far, and there are more developments to be added to the car soon," he said.
"Also, despite some tricky conditions and a track that was not supposed to suit the E20, we managed to fight at the top once again.
"We were well beaten by Mercedes in China and McLaren have a little bit on us still, but we have a car that can compete for podiums. We just have to make sure that we don't miss any opportunities."
