Eric Boullier insists good race required for Renault against “Big Boys” – Formula 1 Update
Renault’s team principal Eric Boullier has emphasised the need for good races if the team is to stand against some of the bigger teams.
According to Eric, Renault have the pace to match the top teams, just the perfect weekend without reliability issues is required.
After having an almost perfect start, the Renault team has suddenly found themselves down the list with some reliability issues in China. Vitaly Petrov showed good pace in Q2 but did not participated in the Q3 session, hence starting the race in the 10th
position. Petrov’s team-mate, Nick Heidfeld started the race from the 16th grid position.
Talking about Petrov’s Q2 performance, Eric commented, “If you look at Q2, Vitaly's pace showed where we should have been. If we have this pace, then we need to have perfect weekends.” Eric added that fighting against ‘Big Boys’ will require a perfect start
without any reliability issues.
Reliability has been an issue with the Renault team right from the start. In Australia, both cars faced reliability issues in the Free Practice sessions, but Petrov was able to secure the third position finish in the race.
In Malaysia, both R31s failed again as suspension failure occurred. Heidfeld was able to climb to the third place podium in Malaysia, despite having a bad FP session.
In China, Petrov’s car was showing good progress but Heidfeld had all sorts of issues with the tyres and grip as he crashed his car twice on a same day and damaged the car’s front wing.
Adding with the reliability issues, Eric also blamed the strategy of the team in China which was not as effective as some of the other lower running cars. “If you are clear ahead and have clear laps, then you just pull away because the traffic is not affecting
your pace. Our people are very good on strategy, but I think with the Pirelli degradation we just need to handle the weekend differently,” added Boullier citing the perfect strategy of the McLaren team for Lewis Hamilton.
Eric concluded that three weeks worth of time is available and the Renault team will work to resolve the reliability issues to at least stand fifth or sixth in the Constructor’s championship.
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