Renault are hoping for a very successful weekend at Silverstone this weekend, with team boss Eric Bouiller saying that the team are looking for ‘big points’ at the Northamptonshire track. Here’s the quotes in full, starting with Robert Kubica, who has joined the list of drivers praising the circuit, saying:
“It’s an exciting circuit, a very challenging track, especially the first six or seven corners which are just amazing with current F1 cars. Most of them are nearly flat out, or perhaps even flat – it depends on the wind direction – and as soon as you exit one, you’re into the next one straight away: it’s just amazing how much speed you can carry through them. Of course, there is the new section this year, as well, which I’ve seen on the internet and on TV when MotoGP raced there: it looks quite bumpy, and different to the previous version of the circuit, but I think overall that Silverstone is a place where all the drivers are happy to drive, because it really shows 100% of the potential of an F1 car in the high-speed corners.”
Robert Kubica
He may like Silverstone, but Kubica is making no guarantees that he will be quick this weekend due to the difficulty of finding the correct set-up:
“It’s very difficult to judge. Silverstone is normally quite a tricky place for the set-up and for finding a good balance, because you have a big difference between the low-speed and high-speed corners, and there are not really any medium-speed corners in between. Downforce is a key point and with the changes we made to the car last race, it will be interesting to see if they bring us an advantage in the high-speed stuff. It will be a good test on Friday to see and feel the differences with the new package.”
Robert Kubica
So far this season Renault’s main competitors have been Mercedes, but it is a case of waiting and seeing as to who the French team will be in competition with at Silverstone, due to the updates teams are bringing to each race, as Kubica explained:
“A lot of it depends on the circuit characteristics and if you get everything right or not. We were very close to Ferrari in qualifying in Valencia, even though we were not 100% happy about how it went – but I think most people were struggling a bit in qualifying there. In the first stint of the race, I was behind Felipe and we had a slightly slower pace than him, but things might change. Mercedes struggled in Valencia, too, and we saw some cars having big ups and downs in performance during the weekend, so it’s very, very difficult to judge. Silverstone has a completely different character to Valencia or even Canada, and the last time we raced at a similar circuit was in Istanbul. Since then, people have made big updates to their cars, including us, so we really will have to wait and see.”
Robert Kubica
We are now over the halfway mark in the 2010 season, and Robert Kubica believes the team can feel very proud of their efforts and achievements over the year so far:
“As a driver you’re always hoping for a winning car but, in reality, myself and the team went to the first race hoping to get into the top ten in qualifying and we felt this was our potential, after doing a good job to improve the car during winter testing. Until now, we’ve qualified in the top ten at every race, and apart from Bahrain, my worst finish has been seventh. All in all, we can be happy with the job we’ve done. Of course, we had more room for improvement in the beginning, but we managed to close the gap to the top teams, and the guys in the factory have worked really hard to keep up the pace of improvements. Now, the last few tenths to the front will be very difficult to find, but I think we can be happy and really proud of what we have achieved so far after starting quite far away. I don’t think anybody was expecting us to achieve these kinds of results.”
Robert Kubica
Renault’s other driver Vitaly Petrov said that he is still learning about Formula 1, and he hopes that by the end of the year there will be clear daylight between the Enstone-based team and Mercedes:
“It’s difficult to sum up my feelings because so much has happened to me in the last six months. I’m still learning about Formula 1 and I feel that I’m improving at each race and working better with the team and my engineers. I’ve seen just how competitive Formula 1 is and it still amazes me to see how much effort goes on by the team to improve the car at each race. For the rest of the season I know that I must work hard with Robert if we are to beat Mercedes before the end of the year, and this is our clear objective.”
Vitaly Petrov
The Russian also added his thoughts on the new Silverstone circuit, but unfortunately he doesn’t think that the layout changes will increase overtaking:
“Until we get there and drive the lap it’s difficult to know what the new section will be like in an F1 car. My feeling is that it will just make the lap a bit longer because the main characteristics of the track have not changed. It was always difficult to overtake at the old Silverstone because of the quick corners and I think that will still be the case this year. There are some extra straights, but I don’t know if they are long enough to allow overtaking.”
Vitaly Petrov
The Renault team boss Eric Bouiller expanded on the team’s battle with Mercedes, and said that he felt his team were hopeful for some big points won this weekend:
“The battle with Mercedes is a fight that I expect to last throughout the season. They are a very strong competitor and it would be wrong to underestimate them. They have two very good drivers and they are ahead of us in the championship so it’s clear that we will have to work hard to beat them. Obviously they were missing some performance in Valencia, which was a surprise, but I don’t think they will underperform at every race. So it was important that we took points off them because I know they will fight back.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the cars on the new layout and hopefully it will encourage more overtaking and improve the show. In terms of our performance, the recent upgrades we have made to the car should work well at Silverstone and I’m hopeful that we can score some big points this weekend.”
Eric Bouiller
