Lotus F1 Racing's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is confident the outfit will be the best of F1's new teams despite its late addition to the 2010 grid.

Campos Meta, Manor GP and US F1 were joined by a fourth addition to the 2010 grid in mid-September when it was announced the historic marque of Lotus was to return to F1 for the first time since 1994.

The FIA granted Lotus the 13th slot on the grid from next season ahead of BMW Sauber and Epsilon Euskadi following an intensive selection and due diligence process.

Gascoyne returns to F1 with 20 years of experience in the sport behind him after working with Jordan, Renault, Toyota, and most recently Force India.

He is aware of the challenges facing Lotus over the winter, but is confident the team will be in good shape when it competes in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14.

"We can't hide from the fact that we are late to the party but we have already made good progress since our entry was confirmed in September," Gascoyne told Press Association Sport's www.thesportbriefing.com.

"We already have a model running in the windtunnel, we have just laid up our first chassis and our nose box is going through its first crash tests, but we still have a lot of recruitment to undertake between now and the start of the season.

"It is not only the challenge for developing the car, but we need to establish an entire race team, which is no small task."

He added: "Our initial aim is to be the best of the new teams and I would like to think we are already on our way to achieving that goal.

"We have to be realistic but our aim during 2010 will be to head the group of new entries and continually reduce the gap between our performance and those of the established teams."

A privately funded project, Lotus will be jointly owned by Malaysian companies Tune Group and Naza Group, and a baseline annual budget of around £55 million has been confirmed.

Lotus contested 491 grands prix from 1958 to 1994, winning 79 en route to seven constructors' titles, helping iconic names such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi become world champions.

The team is re-entering the sport during a 12-month period that has seen major manufacturers Toyota, BMW and Honda all withdraw their involvement.

Gascoyne believes the entry of new independent teams will be crucial as Formula One attempts to adapt to its changing circumstances.

"Recent economic trends have forced all businesses to rethink their approach and all Formula One teams - and manufacturers - have taken big steps in recent years to reduce their budgets," he added.

"The result of these efforts has allowed new independent teams to enter the sport, irrespective of the recent unfortunate decisions by some car manufacturers.

"Adaptation to changing circumstances is the key to long-term survival and I think this is the sort of evolution process that Formula One is experiencing at the moment."