Renault seek improvement ahead of Turkish Grand Prix: Formula 1 News
Renault’s team principal, Eric Boullier, has demanded consistency from his team after the outfit failed to deliver in the Formula 1, 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. The team had a terrific start
to the season with two back-to-back podium finishes.
The drivers, Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld, secured a third place finish in Australia and Malaysia respectively. However, they were unable to repeat their performance in China, as the
team only scored two points from the race.
Boullier stated, “We cannot afford to have any bad weekends and definitely to have a perfect weekend we need to be ready to cope with everything. If you want to play with the big boys,
then we have to be there and we have to run perfectly. Let's say we took it wrong from the beginning. We just couldn't do it.”
He further added, “I don't want to upset the guys obviously, but we had a couple of things wrong that definitely we have not been able to handle or react accordingly. Vitaly's engine problem
was not our fault obviously, but we could have clearly briefed our drivers on how to get rid of this. But that was not done.”
Petrov started the race from 10th on the grid, whereas Heidfeld managed to qualify in 16th. However, Boullier stated the team could have pushed for a better result
in the race, scoring more points. There were some other drivers like Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, who started the race way down the order but had a strong finish.
The Australian driver started the race from 18th on the grid and stunned one and all with a third place finish. On the other hand, the seven-time Formula 1 champion gained six
places from his qualifying position, finishing eighth in the race.
Boullier was also surprised by the performance of Nico Rosberg, who led the race at one stage after a lightening quick pit-stop. When the German stopped for a tyre change, he was six seconds
behind race leader Jenson Button. Once the top three drivers completed their stops, Rosberg was in a lead of five seconds over everyone.
Renault has planned to bring an updated rear wing for the Turkish Grand Prix, which will take place on Sunday, 8 May. The team expects to improve a lot, but are realistic about their chances
and claim to fight for the midfield.
Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari were the three teams expected to fight for race wins ahead of the 2011 season. However, Renault have shown a lot of promise until now. They are fourth with
32 points in the constructor’s championship and that is a definite step ahead of the previous season. However, Mercedes exhibited a much improved performance in China and will give a tough time to their competitors, who are ahead of them at this stage.
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