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15 April 2011 Luiz Razia: "It was good
to get back in the car and even though the
suspension issue brought the session to an
earlier end than we would have liked I could
still feel that the car has taken a step forward
since I last drove it in Barcelona. I was taking
it steadily, aiming to bring the lap times down
and give the team some useful feedback so it's a
shame I couldn't complete the plan, but that's
racing."
Heikki Kovalainen (car 20): "It's good to get
through the whole day with no reliability issues
and hopefully that sets us up well for the
weekend ahead. The car had a good balance this
morning but this afternoon the changes we made
maybe didn't take us in the right direction so I
wasn't quite as comfortable in FP2. I had a few
issues with traffic on my performance run which
meant I couldn't get everything out of it but
having had a clear day we'll put in the work
tonight as see where we are tomorrow."
Jarno Trulli (car 21): "Clearly it's good that I
had a trouble free afternoon but I am struggling
a bit with the balance to be honest. We'll work
on that tonight with the data we've generated
today and with another clear session tomorrow we
should be able to pick up where we left off in
Malaysia."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"That was a good Friday engine-wise. We were
able to set up the engines according to the
driver requests and we worked through a program
that tested a number of maps and the feedback we
have had is good. We have definitely taken
another step on from Sepang and as the ambient
conditions here are less severe than in Malaysia
the engine is consequently under less stress so
I think we should be able to continue the
progress through qualifying and into the race
and maximise our performance across the
weekend."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "That
was a far more productive Friday than we have
had in the two previous races this season and I
think it is a measure of our increased
competitiveness that we are actually a little
disappointed with the overall pace. We ran Luiz
Razia this morning and he did a good job for the
team, despite having a suspension problem that
brought his run to a premature end. With the
race drivers we completed the full programme on
each car but traffic interrupted both their runs
on the soft tyres so we are a little
disappointed that we were not able to show more
pace that we know is in the cars. The tyres are
working pretty well here - we have found our way
around the warm up issues, so while today is
satisfying in terms of reliability, there is
definitely more to come tomorrow and we want to
be pushing towards Q2."
Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "I think
that was a pretty good day for the team. We put
in the laps and have accumulated some good data
on the tyres so I think we're in good shape for
tomorrow and Sunday." 16 April 2011
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20: "From my perspective
I'm very happy with that. I left it all until
the last minute and swapped to a one lap run,
putting myself under a bit of pressure, but I
put in a good final lap and got under 1.38.
After FP3 we already knew we'd have a bit of a
tricky qualifying session as the track
temperatures were a lot lower than yesterday and
that definitely affects our car. We're quite
easy on the tyres and when the temperatures drop
we need to work harder to get them up to the
optimum heat, which means we don't get
everything out of them, but in the race
conditions we're definitely stronger and you can
see that we're steadily doing what we want which
is to keep pushing towards the midfield."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21: "I am really happy from
the driving point of view because I pushed hard
out there today and said over the radio that I
think I got as much as I possibly could out of
the car today. I'm still working on finding the
right balance but little by little we're
progressing so I think we keep on doing a good
job across the whole team and after a good
weekend from the reliability point of view we
should have a good race tomorrow."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"From the engine side we have made another step
forwards. The improvements across the car from
the beginning of the year are starting to pay
dividends and we are now close to the optimum
engine strategy. Even though we have a lot more
work to do I think we are getting closer to
unlocking the real potential of the car so we
are pretty happy with where we are now, and the
direction we are heading in."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "A
trouble free day but disappointing in terms of
performance. In the cooler conditions we clearly
struggled more with the tyres than last week and
yesterday and we were some way off the level of
performance we expected. However, we have seen
that even in these conditions our race pace is
much better and we are considerably more
competitive so I think we can take the race to
the midfield group in front and do ourselves
justice."
Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "We are
realistic and we all knew when we woke up that
the considerably lower temperature would mean we
would struggle to replicate what we did in the
yesterday's practice. Despite that we have had a
good weekend so far, pretty much trouble free,
and I know from talking to a few of the teams
just ahead of us that we are starting to play a
part in their strategies as they know we are
very close to being able to take the fight to
them in real pace. So, even though the gap is a
bit bigger today than we would have liked, it is
still clear that our steady progress will pay
dividends over the long term."
17 April 2011
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - qualified 19th,
finished : "That is our best ever performance.
It's not the highest place we've had but today
we beat two midfield cars in a straight fight so
I am very happy, with my performance and the
performance of the whole team. We knew we would
struggle in the cool conditions yesterday but
today the temperatures rose and we expected to
be able to put in the sort of race that would do
justice to the pace that is in the car. We will
keep working hard to improve the car's behaviour
in the cooler conditions and we can only get
better from here."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - qualified 20th, finished:
"I had a good start and then Heikki and I were
able to pull away from the cars behind and keep
to the strategy to fight with the guys ahead. My
first stop wasn't great and I'm still having a
few issues with the tyre degradation but really
today is about the team result. We have shown we
are developing exactly as we want to and that's
a huge motivation for everyone."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"That is a very good result for the whole team
and it is important we enjoy it. The key goal
today was to get both cars across the finish
line and to achieve that, and beat both Perez
and Maldonado is a big step forward for us. A
very satisfying day."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "That
was an absolutely fantastic race from both
drivers and from the pitcrew who performed
brilliantly under huge pressure. It is very
satisfying to have beaten two other midfield
teams on track on pace and strategy and to be
able to show that we have bridged the gap to the
established teams. Both drivers made a good
start and with the higher track temperatures we
knew our race pace would be good, and so it
proved. With the tyre degradation we were able
to stick to two stops, which was always our plan
and that allowed us to jump a couple of people,
giving us our strongest race in F1. Additionally,
we were only lapped once, right towards the end
of the race, so I am very proud of the whole
team today."
Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "I am
actually lost for words. We were racing today,
actually taking on teams who have been in the
sport for many years, and even though there is a
huge amount of work ahead of us, now we need to
enjoy this moment, build on this feeling and
keep moving forwards." |
