Formula 1
Belgian GP: Renault Friday report
Robert Kubica, R30-03 Free Practice 1: P3, 2.02.081, 14 laps Free Practice 2: P4, 1:49.282, 20 laps Robert: It was quite a good Friday for us. The conditions in first practice were pretty bad, but our main aim was to check how the f-duct system ...
Published: Aug 28, 2010, 10:39 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Robert Kubica, R30-03
Free Practice 1: P3, 2.02.081, 14 laps
Free Practice 2: P4, 1:49.282, 20 laps
Robert: It was quite a good Friday for us. The conditions in first practice were pretty bad, but our main aim was to check how the f-duct system was functioning on our car. We focused on getting experience of the system, for the engineers and for myself, and to get everything working properly - and we managed to do this in spite of running in the wet. In the second session, I ran every type of tyre: extremes, intermediates and both compounds of the slicks. The car felt reasonable in all conditions, but I think we can make further improvements to the balance tomorrow.
Vitaly Petrov, R30-04
Free Practice 1: P17, 2:04.690, 15 laps
Free Practice 2: P11, 1:50.251, 24 laps
Vitaly: The first target today was to find out how the f-duct was working, and it looks pretty good. You can feel a good difference on the straights when the system is operating, and we are even driving with one hand in some of the corners. It gives the drivers a bit more work to do in the cockpit, but it's nothing difficult to handle. This afternoon, we started to do some set-up work, but the conditions were changing all the time. Hopefully we can make more progress tomorrow, in order to get really comfortable with the car ahead of qualifying.
Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer:
Track conditions were poor this morning. Could you do any useful running in the wet?
This is the first time that we have brought our f-duct to the track, so we spent the morning learning about it in the wet conditions, completing lots of single-lap runs to gather data. It appears to be working very well, but we will need to go through the data thoroughly tonight, and check the installation on the car, to be sure everything is functioning as expected.
Robert seemed competitive in both sessions. Does that tally with your assessment?
It's always difficult to judge performance on Friday, because you don't know the fuel loads that other teams are running. Robert seems happy with the car, although he is still suffering from a little understeer.
How did Vitaly's day go?
It was a very similar story. He is running exactly the same system as Robert, but he was less happy with the balance and complained of more understeer. We still have some work to do to get the car balance to his liking.
What does the weather forecast say for the rest of the weekend?
In terms of the weather, it's been a pretty normal day at Spa! The conditions for the rest of the weekend look unsettled: on Saturday, there's a chance of rain in the morning, and a higher probability in the afternoon; and it's the same for Sunday. As usual, we're expecting a mixture of everything for the rest of the weekend.
Conditions are expected to remain cool. Will this be an issue for dry tyre warm-up?
I don't think so. We ran both types of tyre this afternoon, and didn't encounter any difficulties with either compound. Although we didn't do a great deal of running, I don't think cool conditions would pose a problem.
-source: renault
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Belgian GP: Red Bull Friday report
Next article Alonso takes dominant lead in Belgian GP practice
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Robert Kubica
Missing out on Ferrari F1 drive felt like "bleeding" to Robert Kubica
Formula 1
Formula 1
Barcelona-Catalunya GP
Missing out on Ferrari F1 drive felt like "bleeding" to Robert Kubica
You Ask The Questions: Robert Kubica
Formula 1
You Ask The Questions: Robert Kubica
What would you like to ask Robert Kubica?
WEC
What would you like to ask Robert Kubica?
Latest news
The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
22 min
The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP
HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 33 min
HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster
“I couldn’t disappear” – Oliver Bearman rues “crazy” penalty for Pierre Gasly clash
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
“I couldn’t disappear” – Oliver Bearman rues “crazy” penalty for Pierre Gasly clash
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe