It will be a good race for us - Alonso
After scoring a hat-trick by winning in Spain, Monaco and Great-Britain, Fernando Alonso wants to finish on the podium at Montreal as he never achieved this before. The World Champion already won 5 races this season.
"Canada was one of the races on my ‘to-do’ list at the start of the season. I have never finished on the podium there, and that was one of my goals for 2006. So I will be really pushing to get a strong result there."
How competitive will the Renault be on the long straights and in the tight corners?"In the past few years, this has always been a very good circuit for the Renault car. I didn’t finish in 2005 or 2004, but we were very quick in both races, and I set the fastest lap in 2003. It will be a good track for us, I think."
What are the main demands on the car?"This is always a tough race for the teams. We see a lot of retirements during the race, because the engines are stressed hard, there is heavy braking, and the transmission has a tough time from launching out of the slow corners. I think the brakes are probably the most important area though. We have low levels of downforce, so you need confidence on the brakes because the car feels very light, and we work hard to get the right feel."
How do you cope with changing circuit conditions, as the grip levels improve through the weekend?"We go there knowing that the circuit will change a lot during the weekend. For sure, there will be more grip in every corner, every braking zone, every corner exit on Sunday, than on Friday. That means we have a moving target for the set-up, because the track is changing constantly, and we need to make the best estimates of what we will require – for the tyres as well. But we have good data from previous years, and by Sunday, we always have a good car. So I don’t think it will be a problem."
Finally, you go into this round of the championship with a 23-point lead over your main rival. Can you now start to manage the advantage?"Definitely not – the season is not even at the halfway stage yet, and in Ferrari, we have very strong competition. Last year, we were fighting against teams who had reliability problems – but that won’t happen with Ferrari. They will be there at every race, and very strong in Canada as well. So we are still attacking, still being aggressive, putting new parts on the car and trying to push the limits at every race. That’s the only approach we can afford to take this season."
Source Renaultf1
