I’m confident we can do a better job in Malaysia - Bell
After collecting four points during the first race of the 2009 season at Melbourne, the ING Renault F1 Team is looking ahead to the Malaysian Grand Prix. Bob Bell is convinced that his team can do better at Sepang.
"I don’t think we lived up to the expectations that we set ourselves before Australia. We thought we would be more competitive than the performance we actually delivered, although I suspect part of that is due to the nature of the track. Albert Park is a circuit that didn’t really suit the characteristics of the car and so we suspected we might be in for a difficult weekend. We now have to work to try and understand why that was the case and rectify it as best we can in time for Malaysia."
Were you surprised by how closely matched all the teams were? Could this be a result of the new 2009 regulations?"Yes, it was a surprise as there was a group of teams behind the Brawn cars that were particularly closely matched. That’s surprising as we expected the new regulations to spread the pack out a little bit more, which is what normally happens following a change of regulations. Normally you only get such parity when the regulations have been in place for a year or so as it allows the teams to converge on the optimum design solutions. It’s just surprising how close it was in Melbourne and it will be interesting to see if this continues in Sepang this weekend."
The team needs to improve its competitiveness, how can this be done?"I don’t think we have a specific problem. I think that we need to lift our game in several areas to get more aero performance from the car. We’ve also got to get the balance of the car a bit more to the drivers’ liking and work on the tuning of the KERS system to get more from it. So it’s a question of maximising what we already have in all areas rather than a specific problem to resolve."
What are your expectations for Malaysia – will the circuit suit the car?"The Sepang circuit is very smooth which should be more to our advantage compared with the bumpier surface that caused us problems in Melbourne. I also think the KERS system will be more of a benefit in Malaysia as the circuit has a couple of long straights and so I’m confident we can do a better job this weekend. With Australia and Malaysia being back-to-back races, we won’t be able to introduce any new developments in such a short space of time and so we need to concentrate on getting more performance out of our existing package."
