Lotus Renault GP hoping to bring upgrades at upcoming Turkish Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Lotus Renault GP have announced that they are going to bring some upgrades for their car for the upcoming 2011 Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix scheduled to take place next week.
The team is hoping to improve its performance as they were unable to give a promising performance at the Chinese Grand Prix after scoring two consecutive podium finishes at the first two races of the season.
Both Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov scored the podium positions at each race and it seemed that Renault were going to be one of the top teams of the 2011 Formula 1 season as they were the fastest team after Red Bull Racing and McLaren.
The team performed very well during the pre-season testing period as well and now they are hoping to bounce back at the Turkish Grand Prix after applying some upgrades to their car.
Renault are looking for podiums this year rather than just finishing amongst points but in order to do that, they would have to perform consistently.
Renault boss Eric Boullier believes that the R31 will be back in the challenge at the upcoming race with a modified front wing, nose, air intake area and some changes to the car’s floor.
“We have a good upgrade package coming for Turkey. I think that historically the teams were preparing to introduce their development packages for Europe, but I think that in the last couple of years the development race is continuous and this competition
has already started,” said Boullier.
He added that most of the teams have already upgraded their cars and in order to ensure a secure future during the European phase of the new season, Renault needed the upgrade vitally.
The team’s technical director James Allison on the other hand claims that he cannot find a reason why his team would not be competitive at the Turkish Grand Prix.
“It's a fairly regular type of track, not especially dissimilar to Malaysia and China I would hope that we can continue compete at a high level. [The car is] sufficiently fast to be healthily-placed in the top ten in qualifying, which gives you half a chance
come Sunday,” said Allison.
He believes that the Pirelli tyres suit the R31 a lot as a result of which it runs much better during the races rather than the qualifying sessions. Allison thinks that the car has been quite reliable for them so far.
Renault are currently in 4th place in the constructors’ standings just 18 points behind third-placed Ferrari.
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