Q:
Sam, your modifications?
SM:
A lot of ours are aerodynamic for this race. There is a new front and rear wing, diffuser, barge-board area. Because everyone is doing the same thing you need to find two-or-three tenths just to stay where you are. If you can find anything above that then you will close the gap to the guys in front. As Pat said it is fairly normal to get quite a big upgrade when you come back to Europe, so you have to try extra special to actually upset the order and then that can play into things like mechanical changes as well.
Q:
Now you have got
Kazuki Nakajima, who is almost entirely new to the team, and Nico is still young although he has got a couple of seasons under his belt. Do you feel they are still lacking in a little bit of experience?
SM:
They are both young, you can’t deny that. Nico has been driving
F1 cars for four years now because he was a test driver for a year before he started racing. He has come on a lot but he is clearly not the same age as guys who have been driving three or four times as long as him. But he is doing a good job. Kazuki is obviously a rookie. We do have a very young driver line-up but that can bring benefits as well in terms of enthusiasm and ability to look outside of the box. But it means the race engineers and the people at the top need to inject the experience to tell them what to do and what not to do.
Q:
So it is a balance between their inexperience and your experience.
SM:
Yes, that’s right. Throughout F1 you always get different driver line-ups. Sometimes they are positive and sometimes you just need to help them out more but so far they have done a good enough job with the car.
Q:
Adrian, your modifications here?
AN:
Obviously, educating our rookies. Apart from that pretty much the same as Sam apart from that one. A new front wing and a few other aerodynamic bits and pieces. Same again really. The European season is the start of the first big upgrade. Traditionally now a lot of the teams are doing the same. They will have a big upgrade just past the first race and then a further one for the first European. We didn’t get all the parts we wanted tested in the test because of the rain on the last day and some of our parts didn’t arrive until that last day, so as Pat hinted we may have done a little bit of evaluation this morning which we wouldn’t normally do at a race weekend. But we have done loads of miles around here, so felt confident in doing so.
Q:
Renault have been saying they feel they are a little bit down on power. I think that is fair enough to say, Pat?
PS:
I am not sure who has said that but maybe it is fair enough to say, yes.
Q:
So are you hurting in that area as well do you feel?
