07/05/2016
NEWS STORY
Cyril Abiteboul: Getting points in Russia was a good fillip for the team after the tough race in China. We were reliable and competitive enough to out-race our closest competition and that took a lot of hard work. That said, we acknowledge it took a cocktail of circumstances and repeating the result in Spain would be tough. However, Barcelona is the start of our development program and we will see some new developments coming through in the race, with several others scheduled for the test afterwards. We look at this race as a marker in the sand: the exit point of our recovery from the takeover and the first race as ‘our' team. It will start small, but I'm confident we will gain momentum as we go forward.
Racing Director of Renault Sport Racing, Fred Vasseur talks points, performance and drivers.
What's the outlook heading to Barcelona?
Fred Vasseur, Racing Director: It's no secret, we still have plenty of work to do. That will be the story all year. Russia was a good weekend for us as we saw the whole team deliver and our first points of the year were a result. That was great for everyone and a good reward for all the effort being put in. Equally it doesn't change the work we have to do: make the car faster, and ensure we make no mistakes in any aspect of our work.
In Russia the car didn't suddenly gain a lot of performance, rather the team and Kevin in particular were able to extract the maximum and external circumstances also fell our way. Not every race will fall for us in this way, but we always want to deliver the maximum possible as well as improving the maximum potential itself.
We've heard some noise about driver line-ups and we've seen early driver moves elsewhere. What's the situation with the Renault Sport Formula One Team driver line-up?
FV: We have a strong line-up and one we're happy with and committed to. Kevin has performed very well in his return to Formula 1 and Jolyon is approaching his rookie season in a clear and methodical manner. It's true that Jolyon had a couple of races where he didn't deliver as he wanted, equally this is natural in a driver's first season; he's learning and making strong progress.
As well as our race drivers we have a very strong line-up behind them. We saw Sergey Sirotkin do a very good job in FP1 in Russia and we will see Esteban Ocon take to the wheel in Barcelona. Just this week we had Nicholas Latifi complete a vital part of his programme by driving a 2012 Formula 1 car, the E20, at Silverstone. Beyond that, we have the Renault Sport Academy, most of whom will be in action in the support categories in Spain.
What's the driver plan for the Grand Prix and then the test afterwards?
FV: Esteban will drive Jolyon's car for FP1, then Kevin and Esteban will drive in the test.
Chassis Technical Director Nick Chester (pictured) talks Russia, new bits and predicts what could be in store for Barcelona.
Was there a revolution in the team's performance in Russia?
Nick Chester, Chassis Technical Director: In China there were a lot of factors that worked against us and in contrast, in Russia there were a lot of factors that were beneficial to us. It illustrated the importance of having a completely straightforward weekend with no issues to deal with - whether in the practice sessions or in the race. Getting all the data from practice is important: we did that in Russia so our engineers were better placed to make the best set-up calls. On top of that we were able to show decent race pace and capitalise on the events around us in the race and get a strong result. Kevin drove a brilliant race with other cars breathing down his neck; he did everything he could and seventh was the result. On the other side of the garage, Jolyon was much happier with his car so we're in a good place heading to Spain.
What elements would you add to the post-race debrief?
NC: The Sochi Autodrom is unusual in the respect that it's tricky for tyres. Getting the tyres into the correct temperature operating window is a particular challenge and we saw all teams paying particular attention to this over the weekend. In qualifying there are some approaches used like a fast-slow-fast sequence of laps to try to get both front and rear tyres in the correct working window. We made good progress in this regard. Then for the race it was a real positive to see a Melbourne-level of race pace return.
Jolyon seems to have made good progress with getting his car back to where it should be?
NC: Jolyon was much happier in his car on Saturday in Sochi and this translated to a stronger performance over the weekend. As part of our assessments to get his car to work better for him we changed the floor, which is a very important aerodynamic aspect of the car. This looks to have delivered what we wanted so a positive step was made. For Spain Jolyon will run with a new chassis - R.S.16-03 which we used at our filming day this week to shake down.
What else do we have new for Barcelona?
NC: For the race we have an updated rear wing as well as some updates for the front wing. For the test we have a full raft of things to try; new suspension, further aero updates over various areas of the car, some mods to cooling as well as evaluating the B-spec power unit, so we should have a full two days.
Is Barcelona likely to be cruel or kind to the team?
NC: We fared decently in relative terms at pre-season testing there and when you look at the qualities required for a handy car around the circuit there are no initial fears from our side. That's not to say we wouldn't welcome some more downforce, but there's potential as we currently stand.