22/09/2011
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
After two confidence building races to start his Renault career, Bruno Senna is now looking to continue his progression up the Formula One ladder at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix. Yet despite his first ever points paying result two weeks ago in Italy, the Brazilian isn't allowing himself to get carried away.
"For sure it'd be great to be able to score more points than I did last race, but I have to be realistic and put myself in my place," he told reporters in Singapore on Thursday.
Making his return to the Formula One grid in Belgium for the first time in 2011 Senna immediately hit the headlines as he missed his braking marker for the tight La Source hairpin. Sliding wide he trigged a melee of spinning cars, dropping the Renault to the rear of the pack. Two weeks later he was again battling his way through the field after being forced wide at the first chicane, dropping him down the order.
"So far I've been at the back too much after the first corner," he laughed. "One time was my fault, one time it wasn't. It would be good if I can stay wherever I am in qualifying, hopefully in the top ten, and then work up from there instead of having to go from the back of the grid to the front."
This weekend will be his first experience of the Renault on a street circuit, and while he briefly sampled the R31 running high downforce in Hungary, he concedes that his biggest task this weekend will simply be coming to grips with the car.
"Coming here it's maximum downforce. The walls are on the edge of the track so there's no room for error.
"I only have one set of tyres experience with the car with high downforce and there was loads of work needed to get the car properly done in Hungary," he added. "All these things will make it difficult, so my hope is the weather plays nicely with me and stays dry so I can maximise all the running that I have."
The twisty Marina Bay circuit is a far cry from Spa or Monza, prompting different challenges for the Renault rookie. In 2010 while driving with Hispania he was out-qualified by Klien by well over a second, though it's since come to light the Brazilian had no telemetry all weekend - the sensors having broken in the previous race at Monza and the team neglecting to fix them.
This year however he finds himself in a far more competitive situation. But while points are a strong possibility Senna prefers to take a conservative approach, hiding behind his lack of experience. "Every race so far has been very different from the other," he explained. "Spa was a very changeable weekend where it was more about getting along with the changes than actually being on the maximum pace. Then we came to Monza with low downforce and a very loose car and try and take the maximum out of the tyres there, so it's very difficult."
While he'd prefer a dry race, Senna simply hopes that if it does rain the weather remains consistent. "If the weather could be consistently wet or dry then it would be better," he admitted. "If it's changeable then it's going to be difficult to find the limit and for sure if it rains a few times and I end up qualifying in the dry, it's going to make it very complicated to be in the top ten.
"I like driving in the wet and I think Spa was a great race to start because it was wet," he continued. "Even with very little experience in the car I was able to be very competitive from the word go in the wet. I think if it was dry maybe the result wouldn't be quite as nice in Spa as it was in the wet.
"I'm not sure how this car will work on the street circuit in the wet - it'd be good to get some temperature in the tyres, but it's not so easy. If it's changeable it's going to just minimise the number of laps I can do in the conditions. It's just experience. I need the experience."