VALENCIA: New Renault director Eric Boullier said he was pleased on Tuesday with his team’s performance in pre-season testing here despite being bottom of the standings after two days of racing.
TOO EARLY TO TELL: Kubica sits in his Renault R30 during a training session at the Ricardo Tormo racetrack in Cheste. — AFP photo
Their senior driver Robert Kubica finished 2.5 seconds behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who set the fastest lap time on Monday, with the Pole still two seconds behind the Brazilian one hour before the end of testing on Tuesday.
But Boullier insisted that they were just putting the new car through its paces and that Kubica’s times did not reflect the true value of the R30.
“We know what we’re doing. We’re not doing badly,” he said.
“There’s no point trying to perform for different reasons.
“The first is that we don’t know if the car will be viable. Secondly we don’t have all the developments on the car. So the conclusion is that we’re here to see its reliability.
“Maybe it’s more intelligent to keep a low profile, to validate all our elements,” Boullier told AFP, adding that Kubica’s slower times were a result of him driving “with a lot of petrol all the time.”
This factor was important, he said, because the new rules banned refuelling and had increased the amount of petrol allowed to be carried.
Renault – who on Sunday named Vitaly Petrov as their second driver for the campaign making him the first Russian to compete in Formula One – are coming back after a disastrous 2009 season which was tarnished by the ‘crash-gate’ scandal which led to the sackings of top team officials. — AFP