Permane ready for exciting race

Renault's Alan Permane, Giancarlo Fisichella's race engineer, talks about the opening day at Istanbul Park.

Q: You did lots of simulations before coming here -- did the reality match up?

Alan Permane: Yes. We did a lot of preparation for this race, to understand the circuit's main characteristics. For example, we were not surprised by the downforce levels we required, nor by the forces that the front tyres must undergo. The R25 was already well adapted to this track, and we hardly changed the set-up on Giancarlo's car at all today. We will do some fine-tuning tomorrow morning.

Q: What will be the key factors in this weekend's performance?

AP: The grip levels will change a lot up between now and Sunday, and that will help things. For example, Giancarlo felt the car's handling was a lot better just between the two practice sessions, although the set-up was identical. Also, it takes the drivers a while to learn the track properly because it is very wide, which means they can use several lines and need to spend some time thinking about what works best. The other important thing will be to avoid being overtaken in the race, which means we will need very good straightline speed.

Q: The McLarens seemed very quick today -- are you worried?

AP: Not really. We know they are a bit faster than us on pure speed, but looking at today's runs, we are confident. I think we can be closer to them than we have been in recent races -- which means we should have an exciting race on Sunday!

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