Kubica thinking about reliability over times
Robert Kubica posted the fastest time of the week in the R31 © Sutton Images
Despite topping the timesheets on the final day of testing in Valencia, Robert Kubica is not getting carried away with the performance of the new R31.
Kubica set the fastest time of the week on Thursday afternoon, but said the car had also had some reliability problems that had not allowed him to complete his full program.
"I think we can split the day into two halves because we had some problems in the morning and we only managed to do our first real run about 13:00," he said. "But, after we solved the issues with the car, we managed to do a bit of set-up evaluation and some tyre work. However, because of the time we lost this morning we didn't complete the laps we targeted, but it's better to get any reliability issues with the car during testing, rather than when we get to the first race in Bahrain."
Renault technical director James Allison said the week in Valencia had not been without its problems as the team debuted its radical R31 with its unique exhaust layout. However, he was confident it had learnt a lot about the car and more specifically the new Pirelli tyres.
"After months of effort from the whole team, it was great to be on the track for the first time with the R31 this week," he said. "Our first three days of testing have not been without incident, but we have managed a good amount of running, proving out the reliability and functionality of all the key systems on the car notwithstanding its rather unusual layout.
"The first test has shown that management of the tyres this season will be absolutely critical, so it was good to have made some progress in this regard. We move on to the second pre-season test next week looking to make further progress with set-up and tyre management prior to getting the first race package together in the later tests."
Credit: ESPN F1 (espn.com)
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