Blog: Q&A with Robert
A couple of hours before today’s final free practice session and Robert talks about his Hungarian weekend so far.You said before the weekend that you didn’t expect to repeat the performance you showed in Monaco here in Budapest. Why? Things change very quickly in Formula 1. We saw this last weekend in Hockenheim with Ferrari being surprisingly competitive. I think we were in better shape in Monaco compared to our competitors. A lot of teams have made progress since then and are more (...)
A couple of hours before today’s final free practice session and Robert talks about his Hungarian weekend so far.
You said before the weekend that you didn’t expect to repeat the performance you showed in Monaco here in Budapest. Why?
Things change very quickly in Formula 1. We saw this last weekend in Hockenheim with Ferrari being surprisingly competitive. I think we were in better shape in Monaco compared to our competitors. A lot of teams have made progress since then and are more competitive so it’s a different situation.
Does that mean that the team’s development rate has levelled off?
No. It’s just a question of timing. It’s nearly impossible to keep up such a rate of development and through the year you have ups and downs. Sometimes you will have good surprises and more gains than you were expecting, and other times you might get less gains. But the important thing is the long term picture because even if you have a new package, you have to wait 4 or 5 races to see how you compare to you competitors because you can be in different cycles of development.
Do you feel you can take the fight to McLaren this weekend?
We hope so, yes. We would like to fight everybody. But we have to be realistic. It’s difficult to judge things even after two sessions on Friday. Yesterday the car seemed quite good, but the pace of the Red Bulls was incredible and we were missing nearly a second to them. So we hope that the others will be less competitive than us.
Are you feeling the advantages of the blown diffuser?
The team has spent a lot of time to develop it and a lot of effort to get the most from it. So when we introduced the blown floor, it worked well and we knew that it would provide an advantage. Of course, it’s quite a complicated part to understand and if you introduce it during the season there can be some disadvantages because we aren’t allowed to test during the season. You have to improve it little by little. Here, for example, one of the major problems has disappeared so I think it will give us better performance.
Comment
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Comment by anka stasik on August 2, 2010 at 10:09am - I was at this race, and despite the fact that Robert did not finish the race there, there was an incredible atmosphere. Thank you Robert !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are with you
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Comment by Duchess on August 2, 2010 at 12:18am - It's really unfortunate that Robert was given a stop-go penalty AND the team was fined $50,000 for the incident with Adrian. It wasn't Robert's fault that the lollipop was lifted at the wrong time, the stewards should have issued just the fine. But alas, it's too late for that. :-\
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Comment by Petron@s on August 1, 2010 at 2:43pm -
KUB out... thanks lolly pop man !
outrageous ;((
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Comment by Anna C. on August 1, 2010 at 2:28pm - what a race, what a mistake of the renault team in the pit street !
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Comment by GW on August 1, 2010 at 1:29pm -
RF1PP, thanks for putting more light on what has been happening yesterday.
fingers crossed for the race - especially for good start as i agree Nico should be a target in a first place. With all respect the cars behind do not seem to be a big threat.
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Comment by RF1 Paddock Pass on August 1, 2010 at 12:56pm - Hi Anna, yes, all the teams have the same tyre allocation. I suspect that because of Red Bull's speed advantage this weekend, they were able to save 2 sets of the option tyre to use in Q3, hence completing two runs in the final part of qualy.
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Comment by Anna C. on August 1, 2010 at 12:20pm
- Ok RF1 for the explanation but how it come that redbull can do more rounds, every team has the same quantity of tires, no ?
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Comment by Boxter on August 1, 2010 at 10:21am - Thanks for the explanation RF1PP, it makes sence then...I know the tyre rules but just we didn't see which set of tyres was used in Q1, i was 100% positive that guys ran on primes in Q1.
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Comment by marcin gizio on August 1, 2010 at 10:20am - ok,thanks guys,feel better now:) good luck in race , cant wait
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Comment by RF1 Paddock Pass on August 1, 2010 at 9:17am
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Guys, I think it's worth explaining the tyre allocation rules again in qualifying for those who don't understand what happened yesterday. We have four sets of option tyres available, and four sets of 'prime'. Yesterday, the option was significantly faster and, with times very close, both drivers used a set of options in Q1 to make sure they were safe. They then both had two runs on option in Q2, leaving one set of new tyres for each driver in Q3. This is why Robert only did a single run, because he had a good feel for the option tyre and didn't see the value in doing a run on used tyres. It's quite a normal thing to do with only one set of new tyres left. The option had performed normally up to that point, then seemed to drop away in Q3. A run on a used set of soft tyres wouldn't necessarily have indicated that.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. We've got both cars in the top ten (only us, RBR and Ferrari managed that...) so now it's time to focus on the race. Rosberg has to be our target today, to try and claw back some points in the constructors' championship.
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