2007 Spanish Grand Prix, Sunday
At the conclusion of sixty-five action-packed laps at Barcelona's
Circuit de Catalunya, the ING Renault F1 Team's dominant feelings
were of frustration, alleviated only by the glimmer of hope
offered by the improved performance of the R27 thanks to the
team's recent development programmes.
Both drivers were forced to drive seriously compromised races
owing to fuel rig problems, which affected Heikki's first
and second stops and Giancarlo's second stop as neither driver
was delivered sufficient fuel to complete their planned stints.
As a result, both drivers were forced to make one more pit-stop
than planned in their race strategy, and this cost the team
a double points-scoring finish. However, Heikki Kovalainen
nevertheless salvaged a seventh-place finish, the best of
his career so far, while Giancarlo Fisichella finished just
outside the points in ninth position.
However, the basic performance of the R27 confirmed that
the team has made a small step forward in competitiveness
since the last race, and this promises well for the coming
weeks as the team continues to work on its development programme,
while pursuing an intensive phase of research and analysis
to cure the problems that are currently masking the car's
true potential performance.
Heikki Kovalainen, 7th position
This is my best finish so far in F1, which is something positive
for me on a personal level, but within the team, we know that
I was quick enough to finish in fifth position today. I am
still pleased though, firstly because I got everything out
of the car today throughout the whole race, and secondly because
the car handling felt much better all the way through the
race. We had problems at the first and second stops, and it
meant we had to convert our strategy to three stops, and run
really aggressive short stints on the soft tyres. During that
part of the race, the car was working really well, and that
continued during the final stint on the hard tyres. So while
we are frustrated about the problems, I am happy to get more
points, and we have shown that we are moving in the right
direction. The car is getting faster, and although there is
still a long way to go, we are confident that we will get
back to our true position.
Giancarlo Fisichella, 9th position
It was a really tough afternoon for me, with my strategy compromised
by traffic, and then the pit-stop problem at the end. I got
a good start, but got squeezed out during the run down to
the first corner. Then I ran wide when I had snap oversteer
in turn 9 and lost three positions, which left me behind Barrichello.
I was much faster than him in terms of lap-time, but didn't
have the speed to overtake on the straight. I only got into
clean air after the second stop, and the car felt really good
– I was pushing to the limit to try and build a gap
to Sato before the final short stop, but I lost out by a few
metres. It is frustrating to finish so close to the points
after a day like this, but we can find some positives from
the fact that we know our car was quick enough to finish fifth
today. That is an encouraging step after the first three races,
and I believe we can continue making progress.
Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
Today, the team has to say sorry to the drivers for the problems
we had. The car was better than at the first three races;
Heikki had a very consistent weekend, that showed what he
can do; and Fisico battled all the way in spite of some difficult
circumstances. But now, we need to investigate the fuel rig
problems, and ensure they don't happen again. We have made
progress, and that is positive, but every point is still vital,
and we need to ensure we take the maximum from every race
at this stage of the season.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
Our race today was severely compromised by problems with our
refuelling. The problems occurred on both cars, and with both
fuel rigs in various combinations, which is more than mere
coincidence. We are currently investigating the source of
those problems. With Heikki, he ended up with a very light
fuel load after his first and second stops, meaning we had
to convert our strategy to make three stops and run short
stints in the middle of the race. For Giancarlo, the problem
occurred on his second and supposedly final stop, which meant
we simply had to stop before the fuel ran out, and were unable
to optimise his strategy. To salvage two points from such
a challenging afternoon is a bonus, but at the same time,
we are all extremely disappointed. Moving on from the problems,
though, our relative competitiveness shows we have made a
small step forward, as our qualifying performance had suggested.
We know that we should have been fighting closer behind the
leading group this afternoon, and that is a small consolation.
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