More to come from Renault ? Kubica
Date published : 22 Mar 2010 - 12:24:49
Robert Kubica says he is feeling very positive about Renault's early-season form and reckons it has plenty more speed to exploit from the R30 in Australia.On the face of it the Enstone-based squad made an unspectacular start to the new season in Bahrain, failing to score a point after team leader Kubica's hopes of building on his ninth-placed grid position were dashed in a first-lap tangle with Adrian Sutil.
However, Kubica believes that while it may not have take any hard results away from the season-opener, his race pace was such that he would have been enough to score a solid haul of points suggesting seventh place, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, would have been possible.Kubica reckons Renault should therefore be in an upbeat mood heading into the second round this weekend.
We had a very intense winter working hard to understand and improve the car, so it was nice to finally be able to compare where we stand, he said. I still want a couple more races to really judge the situation, because Bahrain is a slightly unusual circuit in some aspects, but I'm feeling very positive. We didn't achieve our full potential in qualifying or the race, for different reasons, but seventh position was realistic in both cases. It was disappointing not to achieve that, but encouraging to know that we had the possibility of doing it.
Indeed the Polish ace is optimistic that the team may be able to show its car's true capabilities at Albert Park, Kubica one of several drivers on the grid expecting the more open parkland layout to suit his respective 2010 challenger more than Sakhir.Overall, before the start of the season, I had the feeling that Melbourne would be a better circuit for us than Bahrain,Kubica added.Now that we have seen the other cars running and collected more information about where we stand, I think even more that it will be a good circuit for us. The circuit is very low grip at the start of the weekend, and you need good mechanical grip, braking stability and ride, so I hope we can put in a strong performance and achieve the car's full potential.
Renault's bid to open its points account for 2010 will be aided by several key upgrades this weekend, with the R30 to feature a new front wing and a new part on the rear wing as the team chases more downforce.We're looking at all areas, but it's no secret that downforce still rules in F1 and the more downforce we can put on the car, the better, said its chief race engineer Alan Permane.
We're also looking at addressing some of our weaknesses on the mechanical side, but that's a longer term project and it will be a few races before we can integrate suspension updates.Permane acknowledges the former champion squad is still a long way from fighting for wins and podium finishes once again, but thinks it should take great heart from Kubica's race pace in Bahrain and aim for a double Q3 starting berth this time out.He did a very credible job to fight back to 11th in the middle part of the race and his pace was very competitive as quick as the two Mercedes and the McLaren of Button," he said.It's clear that we're not in the same league as Ferrari and Red Bull at the moment, but the performance in Bahrain gives me confidence that we can challenge for some good points this year.He added: The target [in Australia] is to get both drivers into Q3. I think that's a realistic target given our competitiveness. If we can do that then both drivers should be capable of fighting for points.
