Aiming for the podium - Fisico

After a tough and disappointing weekend at Hockenheim, the Renault F1 Team heads to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 13th stage of the 2006 Formula One season. Giancarlo Fisichella is confident for the weekend at the Hungaroring and aims for the podium. Here follows the interview with the Roman.

"You need to be comfortable straight away, and confident with the car and the circuit. The circuit is slippery and dusty at the beginning, so you need a good feeling to understand what changes you need to make to improve the performance of the car. Then, as we run more and the circuit rubbers in, the grip gets better and better."

"Yes, it is. There are a lot of chicanes where you need to use the kerbs – but not too much. We have long corners which make it tough physically towards the end of the race, and lots of braking into very slow corners. You also need to avoid mistakes because the circuit is very dusty off line, and getting the tyres dirty can make it hard to defend your position."

"To be honest, I would prefer to get pole and keep the lead! But if that doesn’t happen, then it is certainly easier to overtake now in Hungary than it used to be, and we have a good opportunity under braking into turn 1. I had some good overtaking manoeuvres in Monaco, so hopefully I can repeat that if necessary in Budapest."

"We were missing something in Germany, not just compared to Ferrari but the other Michelin teams as well. The team has been working hard to understand the problems, and come up with good answers for this weekend. I am confident Michelin will bring competitive tyres, and we need to get the maximum from them this weekend. I will be pushing to the limit, just like in Germany, and aiming for the podium."