No room for error - Petrov
The Renault F1 Team's rookie driver Vitaly Petrov is looking forward to driving in the streets of the Principality of Monaco for the very first time in an F1 car this weekend. The young Russian knows how important a good qualifying is in Monaco and will try everything he can to make it past Q1.
Vitaly, in Spain you completed your first dry race. How was the weekend from your perspective? "It was a weekend with positives and negatives, and another race that taught me a lot. It was very important for me to complete the race and get some more experience of the car in dry conditions – how the balance changes during the race and how to manage the tyres. The car felt consistent and the pace was good, but it was always going to be difficult to score points because overtaking is so difficult there. I had a good battle with Kobayashi for most of the race and managed to stay ahead of him, but I was disappointed to just miss out on points."
Has adapting to Formula 1 been as challenging as you expected it to be? "The most difficult thing is to put together the perfect weekend, and I think that comes down to experience. You need to get the most from the car in every session and you can’t afford to make any mistakes because it affects your entire weekend. That’s why races like Spain are an important part of my learning curve and I certainly feel more confident now that I have completed a full race distance in the dry. I know there are lots of areas where I can still improve and that it’s important to spend as much time as I can with my engineers to try and understand everything about the car. Each race teaches me something new and is another chance to improve."
We now head to Monaco this weekend – is it a track you enjoy? "I’m really looking forward to Monaco and driving an F1 car there for the first time. I enjoyed the track in GP2 and I’m sure it will be even better in my F1 car. But I know it will be a difficult race too because it’s a street circuit and there’s no room for error. Also, overtaking is almost impossible in Monaco so qualifying will be very important, and it won’t be easy with so many cars on the circuit, especially in Q1. I think to complete just one clean flying lap will be a good achievement. More than anything, it’s important not to make any mistakes if we want to finish in the points."
Source Renault
