Malaysia Preview Quotes: Renault

Jarno Trulli

Q. Jarno, how pleased were you with the performance in Melbourne?

JT:

We had a lot of challenges to cope with in Melbourne, but while I think the new rules have certainly changed our approach to race preparation, I think we managed them very well with a good strategy. There was also the extra Friday session: I think that gave us good data to work on, and we had lots of time to try out set-up and strategy options. It definitely helped us for the race.

Q. Melbourne was your first opportunity to drive the full-specification R23 in anger. How did you find it?

JT:

We have a very good car aerodynamically, mechanically it's reliable and the engine's low centre of gravity gives us very good traction. Basically it's easier to drive and better-balanced than last year's car, and in the race it was very predictable and consistent throughout.

Q. And what do you expect to be the big challenges in Sepang?

JT:

Malaysia is a very hard race for drivers because of the extremely humid conditions: we need to train in similar conditions and do lots of aerobic exercise, which is what I have been doing since Australia. The circuit is one I enjoy very much because it is so technical. There is a wide variety of high, medium and low speed corners: you could pick out almost any of them as being a big challenge.

Fernando Alonso

Q. Fernando, Melbourne saw you score your first points in Formula One. What's the next objective?

FA:

I am very, very pleased to have scored my first points in Melbourne. we were very competitive all weekend, and it was a good result for everybody. In terms of the next step, I think we will need to wait a little bit to see how we perform: we were among the top six last weekend, and we need to see if we can continue that through the season.

Q. You ran an aggressive race strategy and took a gamble to start the race on dry tyres: how did it feel to actually be back racing after eighteen months off?

FA:

It was a fantastic feeling. The team's strategy was excellent and the decision to start on dry tyres was a big advantage. I was really able to fight and race properly: after not competing for so long, it was a new experience for me in Formula One. And a good one!

Q. With Formula One not visiting Spa this season, is Malaysia perhaps one of the best driver's circuits of the year now?

FA:

I enjoy Sepang because it is one of the most technical circuits. Now that there is no more Spa, I think that it is one of the three most challenging tracks, with Suzuka and Monaco. The whole lap is very complicated, very technical and demands absolute concentration. A good lap time is always very difficult because there is no one corner that is more important than the others: you can gain, and lose, time everywhere.

Allan McNish, Test Driver

Q. Allan, Renault was the only "Heathrow" team to score points in Melbourne. What role do you think the extra running on Friday played in that?

AM:

Firstly, I think it is worth pointing out that Renault are the only team that seems to want to take advantage of this session: nobody else is running three cars. In Australia, I think the extra track time removed a lot of potential question marks: we already had a good idea of tyre choice, and what the car was like on the circuit. I think you could particularly see that on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, when Jarno and Fernando seemed to be one step ahead of the game.

Q. And did everything go to plan during the session, or are there areas in which to improve?

AM:

We had no problems at all. We got all the answers we wanted from the session, and it also verified our reliability for the rest of the weekend. Obviously, though, different races will see us tweak and improve how we operate on Friday mornings: some circuits will see us focus on performance, others on tyres, others on reliability. We will be able to tune how we work according to what we want to get out of the car for the race.

Q. Although you will only be running for two hours during the Malaysia weekend, the physical demands will still be very high. Do they require any specific preparation?

AM:

In terms of overall fitness, no. We can train our muscles to cope with the demands without too many problems. The real challenge comes in terms of acclimatising to the environment: the heat and humidity is very different to Barcelona in February, or even Melbourne with the conditions we had. For Europeans, and especially a Scot like me, that can take a little while to get used to before you feel completely comfortable!

Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director

Q. Mike, with two cars at the finish, six points and a wholly reliable weekend, was the Australian Grand Prix a satisfying result?

MG:

Obviously, reliability had been a question mark for us. We hadn't done the required mileage on the engines before the weekend but having said that, we had had some good results on the dyno before the race, and we thought the engines that went to Melbourne would be a step forward with regards to solving the issues we have had over the winter. That proved to be the case, and it was pleasing to put in a very competitive race performance.

Q. Overall, do you feel the Melbourne weekend gave a good indication of the team's level of performance compared to the rest of the grid?

MG:

Not really, no. We were disappointed with our performance in qualifying, and the pace car situations in the race definitely hurt us quite badly and worked against our strategy. Those factors meant we missed out on what should have been a podium finish. We are looking to be competitive with the top three teams, and I think we have the car to do that.

Q. And so how do you expect the team to perform in Malaysia?

MG:

To be honest, we were quite surprised by how competitive we actually were in Melbourne, because the circuit didn't necessarily suit what we believe the car's strengths to be. Malaysia is a circuit which places a premium on chassis handling, and we will also be introducing new aerodynamic parts on the car, meaning we have reason to be optimistic for a strong performance at Sepang.

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering

Q. The team has now experienced a full race weekend under the new regulations: did everything run according to plan?

PS:

Generally the mechanics of the new format were very much what the team had expected but of course, the devil is in the detail and putting theory into practice was quite tricky. Overall, I think the huge amount of preparation put in by the team paid off and things went pretty smoothly. We certainly felt that we gained an enormous benefit from the extra track time that we had on Friday. Having said that we learnt some lessons from the logistics of the exercise that can be improved on at the next race.

Q. The new format has brought mixed opinions: from an engineering point of view, how interesting to work with were the new rules?

PS:

I personally love change and the opportunities that it brings: I never regard it as a problem, merely an opportunity. The new rules were an extreme challenge but the hard work put in beforehand by the whole team in order to maximise our possibilities under them paid off with a successful weekend. The race itself was extremely good and certainly part of this was down to the new rules. As for not seeing your rivals' pace until Sunday, surely that is the only day that really matters?!

Q. Malaysia is typically the hottest race of the year, and this brings challenges in terms of cooling and tyre management. How will the team cope?

PS:

Our job is to run every part of the package to the most extreme limits that we believe we can get away with in any given conditions: we look to push the envelope at every opportunity. In Melbourne, we elected to take a tyre that was softer than any of our rivals and, of course, we raced it with a level of risk, but the results speak for themselves. On the cooling side, the R23 has been exceptionally good, and we are expecting to be able to run in Sepang with a radiator configuration that has very little compromise on performance even in the hottest conditions that Malaysia has to offer.