page_title: Lotus F1
section_title: 2015 season
hierarchical_section_title: Lotus F1 / History / 2015 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado during the qualifying on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada
context_page_description: Lotus F1 Team was a British Formula One racing team. The team competed under the Lotus name from 2012 until 2015, following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. The Lotus F1 Team was majority owned by Genii Capital. Lotus F1 was named after its branding partner Group Lotus. The team achieved a race victory and fourth position in the Formula One Constructors' World Championship in their first season under the Lotus title. The team was sold back to Renault on 18 December 2015, The Lotus F1 Team name was officially dropped on 3 February 2016, and announced that they would compete as Renault Sport Formula One Team.
context_section_description: On 5 July 2014, Lotus announced that they would be switching to Mercedes engines from the 2015 season, ending the team's 20-year association with Renault. Grosjean and Maldonado remained at the team, with Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jordá being signed as test and development drivers respectively.
  The early part of the season saw driver error and poor reliability cost the team important race results:
  The Australian Grand Prix was disappointing start for the Lotus team; by lap 2 both cars had retired. Maldonado retired on lap 1 after a three-car wide tussle resulted in him crashing out at turn two and Grosjean lost power on lap 2.
  In Malaysia, Grosjean finished 11th but Maldonado retired due to brake problems.
  Grosjean finished 7th at China, his and Lotus's best result since the 2013 United States Grand Prix. On lap 33, Pastor Maldonado, who had been running ahead of his teammate, missed the pit entry on lap 33 and lost time, dropping several positions. He then proceeded to spin his car on lap 39 as he attempted to make up for lost time, and on lap 48 had a collision with Jenson Button following a long battle for position, damaging his car and retiring with rear brake failure a few laps later.
  Despite only qualifying 16th and 10th, by lap 41 of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Maldonado and Grosjean had been running in 7th and 8th places respectively, until an issue during the pit entry for Maldonado's last stop meant his car had to be reset and restarted, dropping him to 15th and promoting Grosjean to 7th.
  In Spain, both drivers had a great start from 11th and 12th on the grid to be running comfortably inside the top ten. Then on lap 4, contact between the two drivers left Maldonado with a heavily damaged rear wing and, despite a lengthy pitstop in order to reposition the wing, ultimately retired; Grosjean recovered to 8th with only minimal damage.
  Maldonado qualified 9th for the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix, but suffered from brake problems in the early laps and retired on lap seven.
  Grosjean looked set for 10th despite a grid penalty, until an aggressive overtake attempt by Max Verstappen on the start of lap 64 sent Verstappen flying into the barriers and Grojsean into a spin. Grojsean ultimately finished 12th and out of the points.
  In Canada, Grosjean and Maldonado qualified in 5th and 6th places respectively on a track where all Mercedes powered cars had a clear advantage over the rest of the field. Maldonado finished 7th after losing a place to Hülkenberg at the start. Grosjean was forced to pit again after cutting his rear left tyre while attempting to lap the Marussia of Will Stevens and dropped from 6th to 11th in the process, but recovered to take 10th place and nevertheless secured Lotus's first double points finish of the season.
  In Austria, Grosjean retired with gearbox issues while Maldonado finished 7th from 10th on the grid.
  Both cars retired from the British Grand Prix, after a late breaking Daniel Ricciardo forced Grosjean into Maldonado during the first few corners of the opening lap.
  During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi confirmed that team owner Gérard Lopez was in deep discussion with Renault board members in an effort to sell the team back to its former owners. Lotus had received their allocation of tyres less than an hour before the opening session at the Hungaroring after Pirelli refused to release the tyres over unpaid bills, amid the team's growing financial difficulties. In the race, Grosjean finished 7th while Maldonado finished 14th after accumulating three penalties during the race.
  Grosjean finished third in the Belgian Grand Prix gaining the team's first podium finish since the 2013 United States Grand Prix. However, the Lotus cars were temporarily seized post-race due to a legal dispute with former test driver, Charles Pic.
  During the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix, Lotus were locked out of their hospitality unit, stemming from unpaid bills from the race organizers in Japan from the previous year. On 30 September, it was announced that Renault had signed a letter of inten
caption: Both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado exiting the pits during the Canadian GP qualifying session.
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