Allison: Every team on the grid is shameless in copying developments...

If you seek a genuine insight into the world of Formula 1 and you'll be hard pushed to find a more straight-talking source than Lotus F1 Team Technical Director James Allison. Here, the man himself gives us his view on some of the big stories flying round the paddock this week.

What are your thoughts on the current debate concerning engine maps?
James Allison: As far as I'm concerned the situation was clear at the beginning and it's clear now. It's our responsibility as a team to stay within the rules, but at the same time to push the limits as far as possible; to do otherwise is to needlessly throw away performance. There are a set of rules governing engine maps and Renault have been exploring the boundaries of these in the same way as any other engine manufacturer. During the final day of running at Barcelona last week we ran an experimental engine map and made the FIA fully aware of what we were doing. As it turned out they were not happy with what we had proposed and as a result we will not be using it at any of the races.

Lotus E21

Much was made of the ‘DDRS' system trialled towards the end of last season; where do we stand with that currently?
JA: As everyone is aware, we experimented with this concept late last year but chose not to run with it outside of free practice. It is a fiercely complex system and to get it working correctly is certainly a challenge, but there are tantalising gains to be made should we achieve this. We conducted a bit of intermediate work with it at the last test and will be doing the same this week. However I don't anticipate having it working at full capacity before the first race. We are expecting to be a good step closer by the time we leave Barcelona and hopefully we'll see it make its full debut later in the year.

Romain Grosjean's Lotus E21 is returned to the pits during Barcelona testing