Vitaly Petrov: The upgrades applied to the new Lotus Renault GP have improved the car’s performance
Lotus Renault GP’s Vitaly Petrov has recently stated, after the second day of the final pre-season test session that took place in Barcelona, that the new upgrades his team applied to their new car have paid off and the team is hoping for even better results
now at the season opening race, that is expected to take place in Australia on the 27th of March.
Petrov was able to score the third fastest time of the second day of testing in Barcelona after the team upgraded the R31 with a new floor and rear wing. Vitaly was satisfied with his results and he has his hopes high for the 2011 Formula 1 season.
“We have quite a big upgrade on the aerodynamics and quite a few other things. It's a big change compared to the last test and now I go out of the car and I'm happy, because when you feel the car is driving well you are happy and you can work on it,” he
said.
He stated that the team was worried about their new car, as the R31 was not handling the new Pirelli tyres as well as they expected, however, the Russian is confident that the team has resolved this issue now.
“If the car starts to lose the rear you can't control because it's so quick, [whereas] the Bridgestones you could control and you could slide and you could do rallying a little bit. But with this tyre if it's gone, it's gone quite quick and it's difficult
to control. But now with a new load of aerodynamic parts and new things it's getting better and better,” said Vitaly.
Renault is looking pretty good this season and it is expected that they are going to be a challenge for the top running teams, however, Petrov stated that it was too early to predict anything as in the test sessions no teams were running low fuels. When
asked what his thoughts were about his competitors after the test sessions, the Russian said he wasn't quite sure about others, but did admit Red Bull were one of the strongest teams on the grid.
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