Romain Grosjean is keen for a Renault takeover of Lotus and believes the team is currently operating below its potential because of a lack of investment.

Renault is considering a return as a works team and is in advanced talks with Lotus about a possible deal. As one of Lotus current drivers and a Renault-backed driver in the past, Grosjean says he would welcome the move even though it would mean switching from the dominant Mercedes power unit to the underpowered Renault.

"It's always nice to be part of a constructor team and I'm sure Renault is going to improve its engine," Grosjean said. "For sure now Mercedes is the best one on the grid, but next year is a long way away in Formula One."

Grosjean believes the Enstone-based team has a lot of potential to develop its car but has been held back by a lack of investment.

"The development hasn't been as good as we wanted [this year], but it's not down to people or brainpower because we have a lot of good ideas in the pipeline. The CFD, windtunnel and design office is working very well, but at the moment we can't bring it on track. On the other hand, when you are thinking about selling the team you will not put continue to put money in at one stage because afterwards it's all lost.

"It's just a bit of a waiting situation and hopefully soon we will know more and we can move ahead, because from day one the baseline was good [on the current car] and a huge step forward from last year. That shows we know how to understand problems and to put them on paper, but after that it was clear that we needed to move forward and put some performance on the car, but we couldn't achieve that [because of a lack of investment]."