2007 European GP,
The ING Renault F1 Team endured a disappointing afternoon
at the Nürburgring during the 2007 European Grand Prix.
During a dramatic race run in changeable conditions, the
team failed to take advantage of the opportunity to out-score
championship rivals BMW, taking home just one point with Heikki
Kovalainen's eight-place finish. The team will now look to
regroup at this week's three-day test in Jerez, pursuing its
development programme with further evaluations of new aerodynamic
components as it looks to close the gap to the teams in front.
Heikki Kovalainen, 8th position
There is not too much to say about this afternoon, to be honest.
We took some gambles, especially with the wet tyres during
my final stop, and they didn't pay off. I had to look after
my wet tyres on a dry track until the rain came, and it just
took too much out of them to be an advantage. But from the
position we were in, with one stop still to make, it was a
gamble worth taking. This hasn't been a good day for the team,
but we managed to score one point at least. There is an important
test coming up this week, the last before the summer break,
and it will be important to get some good answers there, to
help us find the right track again in Hungary and Turkey.
Giancarlo Fisichella, 10th position
We had the opportunity to do well today, but we didn't take
advantage of it. I lost positions with an extra lap on slicks
at the beginning, and then queuing in the pits behind Heikki
too. After that, we had to run with some heavy fuel loads,
and although the car balance was OK, the performance wasn't
really there. It has been a tough weekend since Friday morning,
and we will be working hard before Hungary to make sure we
are in a better position when practice begins in Budapest.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
This was a bad race for the team. We arrived here optimistic
that our new developments would help us gain in performance,
but we failed to take advantage of the changing conditions
during the race, and lost more ground to our rivals. Our job
now is to analyse everything back at the factory, understand
our mistakes and start moving forward again.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
Changeable conditions require teams to react quickly and effectively
to the challenges they present. Clearly, we failed to do so
this afternoon, and while both drivers performed strongly,
we didn't give them the opportunity to shine. This has been
a difficult weekend for the whole team, and we appear to have
lost some ground to the midfield group that was chasing us
in recent races. This week's test at Jerez will be an important
opportunity to understand how and why that happened, with
a view to regaining our advantage, beginning with the next
race.
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