Renault hoping to challenge Red Bull Racing in the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
After putting up a decent performance at the recently held Spanish Grand Prix, Renault are aiming to fight with the Red Bull racing team in the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.
Both Renault drivers Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov finished the Barcelona GP in the 8th and 11th spots respectively. Despite the fact that Heidfeld’s car caught fire in the Qualifying round, he ended his race in an impressive manner.
The pace of their car, R31 is improving. However, the team is aiming that they will fight with the current leader of the season, Red Bull, if their car performs well.
The team boss Eric Boullier has discussed the 6th round of the season and said, “I think it will be crucial though, like at any race track but especially at Monaco, to qualify at the front. Let's see how we manage the traffic, but I am pretty
sure our car will be fast in Monaco.”
Renault were surprised with the Petrov’s performance in Q3 of the Spanish GP, where he secured a 6th place on the grid. The team admitted that the Russian driver had a problem with the paddle shift of his car, but he ignored it and completed his
run successfully among the strong runners.
The UK-based team had a strong start to the season, as their driver Heidfeld managed his first pole position in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The team believes that their drivers are still capable to make productive runs in the remainder of the 2011 season. In addition, they think their car still has a potential to compete with other strong teams.
The drivers had a good understanding of the tyres, but the hard tyre compounds were not suitable for them in Spain. Therefore, both the drivers switched to soft tyres early in the race. There is still no prediction about the performance of the tyres for
the Monaco GP.
Boullier further added, “Depending on the timing of when you will be pitting, you can end up being stuck behind cars – and that will change completely the order of the race. I think it will be more a gamble than we are used to.”
After a successful race in Spain, Renault are ready to fight strongly on the Monaco street track in order to challenge the defending champions. Let’s see if they can manage to do that.
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