Vitaly Petrov is happy with the new floor and rear wing on the Renault © Getty Images
Vitaly Petrov is confident Renault's latest package of updates have had the desired effect ahead of the first race of the season in Australia.
Petrov set the third fastest time in his first full day testing a new floor and rear wing on the R31 and was happy with the results.
"We have quite a big upgrade on the aerodynamics and quite a few other things," he said. "It's a big change compared to the last test and now I go out of the car and I'm happy, because when you feel the car is driving well you are happy and you can work on it."
He said he had been worried about the way the car was handling on the new Pirelli tyres, but is confident he is now getting on top of that issue.
"At the beginning, at the first day of testing, I was nervous about the car," he admitted. "I was thinking it was really difficult to drive with these tyres. If the car starts to lose the rear you can't control because it's so quick, [whereas] the Bridgestones you could control and you could slide and you could do rallying a little bit. But with this tyre if it's gone, it's gone quite quick and it's difficult to control. But now with a new load of aerodynamic parts and new things it's getting better and better."
Renault has been placed just behind the front runners by some of its rivals, but Petrov maintains it is too early to draw comparisons.
"It's difficult to say because nobody is running low fuel, so it's quite difficult to say where I am and where is another team," he added. "Red Bull looks quite strong, but the rest I don't know."
Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)
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