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Friday 25 March 2011
Karun Chandhok: "I'm obviously disappointed
to have had such a short run for my first time
in the Team Lotus car, but I put my hands up to
it and totally accept it was a combination of a
slippery track and less grip than I expected
from the tyres that combined to put me out so
early. I'm just pleased the guys could get Jarno
out in the afternoon session and it shows what a
great team this is that they could get the car
fixed that quickly to ensure Jarno could get a
decent number of laps under his belt in FP2."
Heikki Kovalainen: "It was one of those days. We
had a couple of problems the guys worked hard to
resolve, and once we had got through the issues
we managed to complete most of the program so we
have some good data to work through tonight.
There is obviously more pace to come from the
car so let's see what happens tomorrow."
Jarno Trulli: "The team worked really well to
get the car ready for the afternoon session but
we struggled a bit with a few issues that meant
I couldn't really push. We'll work tonight on
setup options and there are definitely some
areas to look at where we can find some pace so
I think tomorrow we'll be ok."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"Engine wise it was quite a good day because we
managed to carry out a number of tests we had
not completed in the pre-season running. We have
had some positive feedback from the drivers from
those tests, for example with the blown-floor
strategy, so this has been a pretty encouraging
day for us."
Mike Gascoyne: "A difficult first day in
Australia, although we managed to complete some
good work at the end of FP2. At the start of FP1
Karun was caught out by the slippery conditions
and made a mistake which unfortunately curtailed
his running. In the second session we had a fuel
pressure problem on Jarno's car and an
electronics issue on Heikki's car, both of which
limited our running, but we were able to solve
those issues and work through most of the
afternoon's plan. For tomorrow there is a lot
more to come from the car. We are clearly not
quite where we expected to be in performance
terms but we understand the reasons for that -
it is proving quite tricky for us to get the
best out of the tyres but we will work on that
tonight and when we improve I am confident we
will move up to where we expect to be in
qualifying tomorrow."
Tony Fernandes: "It is good to be back racing
and very satisfying to see our green and yellow
vision coming together on and off the track. It
was one of those days that are not so good for
us but this is a continuous journey and while we
have work to do I'm confident we are moving in
the right direction for the year ahead. It is a
real mark of where we are now that the comments
from the rest of the team are expressing
disappointment with today. As a Team Principal
it is actually very pleasing to hear that a
performance that a year ago we would have been
thrilled about is now being seen as us not
meeting our targets, and that shows us all just
how far we have already come. The team may not
see it right now but this is huge progress, so I
am happy and looking forward to the rest of the
weekend."
Saturday 26 March 2011
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20: "Unfortunately the
rear wing was stuck in the high downforce
configuration for the second run which
definitely masked the real pace there is in the
car. We've also struggled with getting the most
out of the tyres all weekend but I think the
increased temperatures tomorrow will suit the
car much more and we'll be in good shape to show
what we can really do in the race."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21: "I've had a few issues
with the power steering in practice but the team
worked well to resolve that for qualifying and
the car definitely felt better than it had this
morning and yesterday. We'll clearly be much
quicker when we can get the tyres up to full
temperature so it'll be an exciting race for us
tomorrow and I think we'll be in good shape to
push the guys ahead who we were much closer to
in the warmer conditions in pre-season testing."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"Firstly I want to say that the atmosphere in
this team is very good. This means we are all
able to work together very well and it's
important that we can do that to get the best
out of the car this year. From the engine
perspective I think we are ok on usage and the
drivers' feedback has been very good. Obviously
to maximise the performance of the car the whole
package can work better and I'm sure we can
unlock the true potential of the car when we
have worked through areas like the tyre usage."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "Both
drivers did a very good job in qualifying today,
despite both of them being hampered by issues -
Heikki had a rear wing problem whcih meant he
couldn't improve on his second set of tyres, and
Jarno reported loss of grip on his second set so
we clearly were not able to maximise the car's
real performance today. However, I think that we
have definitely taken a step forward in
qualifying. We have been struggling to get
temperature into the tyres all weekend, and have
had some issues with the power steering, but we
made significant progress in qualifying. On the
positive side the tyre warm-up issues will be
much better in the race and looking ahead I am
very confident that we can get back to the level
of performance we showed in winter testing as we
continue through the early part of the season."
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "I am happy with
qualifying. Obviously we are paying the price of
the limited running we had in testing, but I
have to admit I was a bit nervous before the
session and having seen where we ended up I am
pleased with what both drivers produced today.
We continue to learn all the time and as this is
essentially a completely new car we have to work
hard on a number of areas to help us achieve our
full potential, particularly on tyre management
- the car looks like it has Malaysian blood as
it clearly prefers hotter conditions! Despite
that we are all looking forward to the race
tomorrow, and with much more development to come
here, in Malaysia and China, before we head back
to Europe, I am happy with where we are today."
Sunday 27 March 2011 - The race
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - qualified 19th,
DNF: "Until the retirement I was very pleased
with my own performance. I had a good start and
was then staying with Alguersuari and Perez
until the water leak brought my race to an end.
I think this has been a bit of a tricky weekend
for us, perhaps more difficult than we had
anticipated, but we have some time now to
analyse why the pace wasn't quite where we had
expected it to be and to work on the reliability
before we get to Malaysia. We're all ready to
put in the hard work to make sure we keep moving
forward, and these are still early days in the
life of Team Lotus so we'll put in the hours and
look for an improved performance in our home
race in Malaysia."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - qualified 20th, finished
15th: "It was really good to finish the race and
to show that there is some pace in the car,
despite some of the problems we have had to work
through this weekend. We now have a lot of very
useful data we can use to help us move ahead in
Malaysia and China and I think once we have got
through these early teething troubles we will
show that we have taken the step forward we want
to this year."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"That is a good result for us. We were not able
to finish the race with Heikki but with Jarno we
saw some encouraging signs from the car's
behaviour and I think we will be able to extract
more performance from it in the next race after
we have been through the data in more detail.
For the first race with a Renault Sport F1
engine in a Team Lotus car this is a good day."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "After a
pretty tough weekend I am very pleased with both
Jarno and Heikki's race performances. We had an
issue with water leak on the radiator on
Heikki's car and soon after his pitstop that
unfortunately brought an end to his race. He had
been very strong on the options so that was a
shame, but he had looked good until that point
which is obviously encouraging. Jarno struggled
early on with the prime tyres so we swapped him
onto the options and he quickly found his pace.
Our speed in the race was much more
representative of the pace we had shown in
testing so for Malaysia the target is to make
sure we achieve that level throughout the whole
weekend. In summary it was good to get one car
to the end with solid pace and thank you to the
whole team for some very good work all week."
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "I am happy.
After a tense day to see Jarno have a strong
finish in 15th and show good speed in the race
is very pleasing. We knew we had a potential
issue with the radiator on Heikki's car so when
he had to pull over it was not a surprise, but
the main thing for me today is that the pace we
showed in the pre-season tests is back. We were
able to stay with the midfield teams and that
has been the stated target for this year so now
we know we have a base to build on for the
season ahead and some time to fix the radiator
issue before we go home to Malaysia for the next
race. With the work ethic and spirit in our team
I am confident we will take another step forward
in Sepang and we are all very excited about
coming home again for the next race." |
