Q & A with Mike Gascoyne

Q. A new aero upgrade in Malaysia - a good new development for the team.

Mike Gascoyne - Spyker's chief technical officer: We have made substantial modifications to the bodywork which should see a big step forward. Aerolab have extensively tested the parts and our second wind tunnel facility in the UK has validated the developments, so I'm pretty sure of the increase it's going to give.

Q. No testing before the race though, does this put an extra emphasis on the two Friday practice sessions?

MG: The extra track time we now have available on a Friday will be useful to test the parts in representative race conditions, but the time is perhaps more important for the drivers than for us to test the parts.

We're not running our test drivers in the sessions so both Adrian and Christijan can get as much experience of the updates and track time as possible. For Adrian in particular, the extra sessions will be useful as he has never driven this track before.

Q. Adrian had an eventful race debut in Australia, but his performance over the whole weekend was quite encouraging.

MG: Adrian did make a couple of rookie errors, but generally it was a good race weekend performance. I think he has now got all his debut mistakes out of the way. When he was running on his own he was reasonably competitive with the group in front. Someone summed it up perfectly when they said luckily you only do your first race once!

Q. Christijan too had quite a challenging race too, but the overall pace in the laps he did was promising.

MG: Christijan had some mechanical issues and was not 100% comfortable in his race car so we switched to the spare car. He then made a mistake and missed his braking point because his ear piece had come out and distracted him - it was one of those things. This time out he'll be back in the same car he used in the race and I'm sure he'll be eager to do better in Malaysia than Australia.

Q. Despite the problems was it a good weekend overall?

MG: I'm never happy if we don't get both cars to the finish, and I'm never happy if we finish last, but there were a lot of positives. The boys worked exceptionally well, and the car is reliable. We just need to make it quicker, and we'll be quicker next race.

Q. How was it working with Ferrari at a race weekend for the first time?

MG: Very good, there were absolutely no issues at all. They are very helpful in terms of the engine, and we've had quite a lot of support from the Ferrari management in giving us advice on various matters.

Q. Finally, how was it for you personally being back in the thick of things after nearly a year away?

MG: Eleven months on! Toyota finished on the podium last time, and it was always unlikely that we were going to repeat that performance. I enjoyed it, and it was nice to be working with the guys on the pit wall. I think it was a bit of a rev-up for them, as I was encouraging them to encourage their drivers! Now I'm just looking forward to the next one.