Renault starts its fourth race weekend well

During the two practice sessions of this Chinese Grand Prix, Renault drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov performed very well, finishing in the top half of the rankings each time. The drivers’ and Alan Perman’s debrief in this article…

Robert Kubica – 6th and 9th:

« The first session was not particularly productive for us, but we made changes in the afternoon. It was a better direction, and the car’s balance improved. We were able to complete our day’s program, which focused on setup work and some tire evaluation runs. We still need to improve the car’s balance as we are still lacking grip, especially with little fuel on board. Indeed, the car was much better with a lot of fuel. »

Vitaly Petrov – 7th and 12th:

A good day of testing. I didn’t experience any particular problems with the car. We tried several setup options and evaluated the new aerodynamic developments – it seems the car is improved. I’m quite satisfied with the balance found, but we’re still lacking grip. So we’ll need to study the data tonight and see where we can improve.

Technical Debrief with Alan Permane – Chief Race Engineer:

Track conditions and evolution: « The grip was very precarious this morning, with quite a lot of dust and the conditions improved slowly throughout the day. That said, even at the end of the day we found that the circuit lacked grip. However, the situation should improve leading up to and during the qualifying session.»

Tire performance: « We have the same types of tires here as in Sepang (the hard and soft compounds). Their behavior hasn’t been an issue, although the hard type takes a bit longer to warm up. The soft tire is slightly faster and will probably be the one we use for qualifying. »

Chassis balance: « We had some issues with Robert’s car in the first session: he complained about oversteer and a lack of grip. We made a change between the two sessions, and Robert was more comfortable with the car this afternoon. He was particularly pleased with the car’s balance during his longer run when he had a higher fuel load. Vitaly experienced understeer, but his car is quite well balanced. His day went well, without any issues: he completed a good number of laps, and his times were encouraging. »

According to a statement from the Renault F1 Team