Encouraging performance - Permane
The ING Renault F1 Team’s chief race engineer, Alan Parmane, talks about his new job and the Australian weekend after the qualifying session from yesterday. Fisichella qualified 6th on the grid and Kovalainen 13th.
“I’m really enjoying it. It’s such a different job to that of chassis engineer. You have to look after the two cars, answer questions from the new engineers, etc.
Is there a lot of pressure?“We’re not here to have a laugh, that’s for sure, but it’s a very interesting job. And I’m not alone. I’ve known the team for years and Pat (Symonds) is always around to answer my questions if need be.”
How has the weekend gone so far?“It’s no secret that we ran into fuel pump problems yesterday, and Heikki was slowed by other minor glitches this morning. In these conditions you can’t hold it against him that he didn’t make it into the last ten in the final shootout. Giancarlo put on a good qualifying performance. If he hadn’t been held up on his quickest lap, he’d have been fourth on the grid.”
The performance of the R27 over the long runs seems very encouraging?“Yes, the car’s shown itself to be very competitive in this set-up. We’re very happy with the series of laps done by Giancarlo yesterday on hard tyres. It augurs well for Sunday. We’d already made progress in this area during private testing in Bahrain two weeks ago, and the car’s received evolutions since then. For example, it’s now got much more downforce and we’re continuing to push development in this direction.”
Is that situation particular to Albert Park or will we find it on other circuits?“I don’t think it’s specific to Melbourne. The car’ll be competitive in race trim on the next few tracks. We’ve just got to improve our pace over a lap and we’re working on it.”
Source Renaultf1
