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Friday, 24 June 2011 Heikki Kovalainen,
Car 20 - Chassis T128-04: "A pretty
straightforward day for me. The car improved
throughout both sessions and having got through
the whole plan on both tyres we have enough data
to work on overnight to find some more speed
tomorrow."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: "That
was a good afternoon for me and thanks to the
team for the job they did today. We worked on a
couple of power steering options and I'm pretty
pleased with what we found on the second option.
We got through a decent number of laps and even
though we didn't have much time to work on setup
options I think we're moving in the right
direction so it'll be interesting to see how
we've progressed tomorrow."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"From the engine perspective that was quite a
good day. Karun's gearbox issue this morning
limited the work we could do with him but we did
complete a number of runs with Heikki using
engine maps that we will be running in
Silverstone which will help us understand how to
maximise the cooling and fuel consumption of the
engine there, on a track that isn't as hot as
Valencia. That data, along with everything else
we have learnt today, is going to be very useful
for this weekend and the next race, so I am
pleased with the work we have completed today."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "A
reasonable first day in Valencia. As we expected
the track was very dusty early on. Unfortunately
this morning Karun had a gearbox issue with
second gear which cut his run in FP1 short -
that was a new gearbox so we need to work with
Red Bull Technology to understand how that
happened and put it right. In FP2 Jarno had a
trouble free afternoon and Heikki worked through
his full programme for the day, however today's
times do not reflect where we expect to be
tomorrow so the focus for tonight is on
extracting more performance from the car and
pushing ahead tomorrow."
Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "A solid
day for us but obviously a shame for Karun that
his morning was cut short. He will have more
opportunities to drive in FP1s for us so he will
have more chances on track, but apart from that
we had a good day. This afternoon we completed
decent mileage and while there's obviously more
pace to come, I'm pleased with the overall
performance from the whole team today."
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 - Chassis T128-04:
"For me that was a pretty good performance. I
found some more time on my second run and I
definitely got as much as I could out of myself
and the car, so even though the gap to the cars
ahead isn't what we want it to be it's still
satisfying to have delivered on that goal. We
knew from the practice sessions that the time
difference would be about what it turned out to
be and despite the hard work put in right across
the whole team we weren't able to close it up
any more."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: "Traffic
played a major role in my qualifying today.
Everywhere I went it seemed as if there was
someone right on the racing line, so to be
honest I'm a bit disappointed. The car felt good
and without the traffic I'm sure there was more
pace in it, but even though we were all told not
to back off in sector three there were other
cars doing that and unfortunately that had a big
influence on the times. However, now it's all
about the race tomorrow and I think we can
continue to show that the speed of the car in
race trim is good. I want to make sure I have
another good start and let's see what happens
from there."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"During FP3 we completed a good programme with
Heikki. We had a small electrical issue with
Jarno but that was quickly fixed and from our
perspective that was a good session. One of the
goals was to give the drivers the right engine
maps to maximise performance in the slow speed
corners and with the mileage we completed we
were able to achieve that. In qualifying the
result was not quite what we had hoped for but
we definitely know where we have to improve the
car and I am confident we are going in the right
direction."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "A
reasonably good qualifying session for us. We
are a little further down than we expected to be
here, but we are well clear of the cars behind.
Tomorrow will be a long hard race and the goal
for us is to have a reliable two car finish and
see what we can pick up."
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "I watched that
session from Paris where I have had a very good
week working on deals for AirAsia and for Team
Lotus. Heikki put in another outstanding
performance and had Jarno not had that spin at
the end of Q1 he would have definitely been
right up there with his teammate. Even though
the times today may not have been quite as good
as we would have hoped for I am still immensely
proud of the way the whole team keeps performing.
We are halfway through our second season and we
have already had a few highs and a few lows, but
I really do love our team - the way we go about
our business is winning us more new fans every
day, and as long as we keep working hard, never
lose the passion and determination that is at
the heart of our team, we will see our dreams
come true."
Sunday, 26 June 2011 Heikki Kovalainen,
Car 20 - Chassis T128-04: "For me that was a
very good race. I'm happy that we seem to have
regained the early season form after Monaco and
Canada where I wasn't really feeling too
comfortable in the car. Today the conditions
were pretty hot out there but I felt good all
afternoon - I've prepared myself physically for
this sort of heat so it wasn't hard at all to
push right to the end. I didn't have any issues
and after we went to the three stop strategy I
was able to keep up a good pace after each stop.
We know where we have to improve the car to keep
taking the fight to the teams ahead, and that
will come in time, but this is a long-term plan
and we are definitely on the right course."
Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - Chassis T128-01: "That
was a good race for me. We tried a couple of
different strategies to cover all our options
and even though my second set was gone by the
end I definitely enjoyed myself out there. This
was always going to be a track where we knew we
would have to keep pushing to get anything out
of it, but it's satisfying for the team to get
both cars to the end and be well clear of the
cars behind us."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader:
"Engine-wise that was a good race. Valencia is a
track that is hard on both engine temperatures
and fuel consumption and we managed both
elements well on both cars. The maps we used
gave the drivers the right options today which
helped when we split the strategies as we did
not suffer any drop in performance as a result
of the switch."
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "A very
solid race from both drivers. We had considered
two stops on both cars but when we saw higher
degradation levels on Heikki's car we put him
onto three and kept Jarno on two to give both of
them a chance to fight. Jarno nearly passed
Heikki in the final stops but Heikki's fresh
rubber gave him the chance to edge ahead and the
key goal today was to make sure they both
finished, so I am pleased we achieved that. This
has not been our most competitive type of track
but despite that we finished well and that sets
us up nicely for Silverstone."
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "A pretty good
day for us. I am happy both cars finished but as
we are steadily increasing our competitiveness
it would have been good to have finished a bit
higher. It is obviously a big challenge for us
to find the 0.5 second that will propel us
towards the midfield teams, but we have the
right elements in place to help us do that. We
will find more downforce and we will continue to
grow, both in experience and in pace, and that
is why I see days like today as another step in
the right direction." |
