Points are the target for Team Lotus in 2011, insists team boss Tony Fernandes. Having secured tenth spot in the Constructors' Championship in 2010 to become the best of the new teams, Fernandes' outfit heads into the new season with a new engine deal and high expectations.

Moving away from Cosworth in favour of Renault power came as a result of a technical deal signed with Red Bull. In October it was revealed that Team Lotus would use gearboxes and hydraulics from Red Bull, followed by the Renault deal a month later.

In an exclusive interview with Pitpass, Tony Fernandes reveals more details of the agreement, as well as the reasons behind the decision to buy technology from Red Bull.

"There are obviously a number of elements of the partnership I cannot go into detail about, but we will be receiving full support at the track and the factory from their team," says Fernandes. "We will be using the tried and tested package they raced in 2009 and with the aerodynamic changes to the regulations this year the cars will be running with a rear end that is optimised for the removal of the double diffusers. This gives us the benefit of both greatly enhanced reliability and maximised aerodynamic efficiency which will stand us in very good stead this year.

"Cosworth were an exceptionally good partner for us in 2010 and the move to Renault was in no way motivated by anything negative with our relationship with them," he continues. "We suffered throughout the season with reliability in the gearbox and hydraulics and when we made the decision to switch to the supply from Red Bull Technologies it made complete sense to pair their gearbox and hydraulics with a proven package which is obviously Renault. It is an exciting step forward for us."

2010 was a learning experience for Lotus, though with a season now under its belt the team is now focussed on moving up the Formula One totem pole. "Realistically we want to be fighting in the midfield," admits Fernandes. "The established teams that were ahead of us in 2010 were competing for points so we want to be racing with them and fighting for the same positions and points they do. That is a realistic target and one that is a powerful motivation for the whole team."

Former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart told Pitpass early in 2010 that simply getting to the first race was only half the battle, and that the difficulty lay in staying there - a point which Stoddart can speak on with some authority. "I would agree to a certain extent," said Fernandes, "but from Mike [Gascoyne] down, right across the whole team, we have experienced people in place who knew exactly what the challenges would be so nothing really surprised us in 2010.

"We definitely deserved to be there and we were told by a number of very experienced F1 people that the whole team looked like we had been in the sport for a long time," he continues. "It was a big challenge to go from a starting point of literally just an entry in September 2009 to a fully-fledged racing team in Bahrain, but we did it and then progressed throughout the season, exactly as we had planned. I was very warmly welcomed by Martin Whitmarsh, who is doing an excellent job as Chairman of FOTA and my fellow Team Principals and I think we brought a new, fresh approach to F1 that was embraced by the whole pitlane - that is a clear sign that we go about our racing in the right way.

"We learned a huge amount, but as I said before we have very experienced people throughout the team and I don't think we encountered any major surprises."

The team's goals in that first season were realistic, tenth place in the constructors' standings the best the team could realistically have hoped for, with all three new teams some way off the pace of the established names. The result entitles Lotus to travel money for the 2011 season under the terms of the Concorde Agreement.

"Finishing tenth, without a doubt, was a major high, but something one of our engineers told me in Abu Dhabi also stands out as a real highlight - he said he had won races with other teams, but nothing ever felt as special as finishing tenth with us in our first year - that says a huge amount about the spirit and passion within our team and it was very gratifying to hear that from a seasoned F1 professional."

Since then however, the team has changed its name from Lotus Racing to Team Lotus, though it remains embroiled in a bitter dispute with Group Lotus over who is entitled to use the Lotus name. While the team name itself has changed the chassis hasn't, which, according to Fernandes, protects their right to the financial benefits they earned in 2010. "We are Team Lotus and our 2011 entry is a Lotus chassis, so the change to Team Lotus is a change to the team name, not the chassis."

The name dispute is one that has created headlines since the Singapore press conference where it was announced that David Hunt had sold the Team Lotus heritage and goodwill to Fernandes. The situation became muddier when it was announced the Renault team would be sponsored by Lotus Cars, a sign, perhaps, of the deteriorating relationship between Group Lotus and the former Lotus Racing team.