Q & A with Jason Plato

Q. You were quick in qualifying while it was wet but faded as the track dried, what happened at the end of the session?

Jason Plato: The conditions were there for us to nab it at the end, but I missed the last five laps waiting for the weighbridge.

One of the requirements of running diesels is that you can't turn them off when they're hot, you have to let them cool down. The oil pressure inside the engine is the bearing for the turbo so if you take that away it can damage it.

When they call us for the weighbridge we have to drive up, wait for two minutes for it to cool down, then drive on and turn it off. That's just something we have to endure until we develop another system, if we can. So I ended up sitting there for three minutes while everyone else had the best of the conditions.

We were quick right the way through the session and I think it's fair to assume that had we been able to come in and whack another set of fronts on, we'd have bettered our time and been further up the grid. Whether or not we'd have had pole I don't know, but I have a feeling we would have done.

Q. How much potential is there in this car?

JP: There are various areas that more pace is going to come from. I'm not in a natural rhythm with the car yet because it's so different to drive. The power comes in in a different way, the noise, the style required, the lines we need to take, have all changed.

I'm still driving it, not like the petrol car, but somewhere in the middle. It requires a certain style and my natural feeling for what's right and wrong in a car is wrong for this car. I just need more laps and by the end of tomorrow I'll have a much better idea of the car. I'll know how it feels during a race, what it's like to defend and attack, how our tyres fall off compared to the others, and all these things. It's going to be interesting to see what it's like in the heat of battle.

The exciting thing is that there's more time to come from me learning how to drive the car better, and when I get me right there's then more time to work the car out. Some of the difficulties we're having now are induced by not driving it right. Solve that and we'll really discover what makes it tick.

Q. In what ways is the car different to the petrol Leon?

JP: The engine delivers its power in a very different way, the difference is just night and day. We also have no engine braking because it's a turbo diesel so the engine doesn't slow itself down and we're relying on the brakes more.

There's more weight over the front axle and that has a big impact on the car and the way it works. There's only so much the front tyres can do, and we're asking them to do a lot more than on a petrol car.

There's no noise in the car, which is bizarre. You don't realise how much you use your ears when you're driving a car quickly. I'm having to use the instruments much more now than before.

If we had a rev limiter on the car that was like a petrol car, I'd be in it every single time because you can't hear that pitch in the engine. You can't hear where you're losing power. I'm still getting the hang of that and going to far and busting through gears.

While I can imagine and think ahead to what we need to be doing, it's still a bit of a learning curve.

Q. Considering it's a new car, will you have any reliability worries tomorrow?

JP: It's a concern, but we're not unduly worried. We've got life cycle on the components which is conservative, and we're going to change a few things throughout the day that we wouldn't normally change.

Q. What is the realistic target for the car's first day of racing?

JP: The podium. If we can get on the steps, it will be a successful first weekend. The main aim is to get some good points in the bag, but they'll also be three test sessions for us that are massively important.