Over at Red Bull Racing after Hockenheim…

Thursday 24 July 2008, 10:33:00 | RF1 Paddock Pass

Red Bull Racing . Hockenheim

Fabrice Lom, the man responsible for the coordination of Renault's V8s at Red Bull Racing looks back on the team's German Grand Prix.

 

 

Fabrice, how do you look back on Red Bull Racing's weekend in Germany?
It was difficult as we were not as competitive in Hockenheim as we had been in Silverstone. That's a situation that we discovered during the test in the week before the race. But the team worked very hard and we continued making progress so that both cars were in the top 10. However, seeing Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso and Jarrno Trulli's Toyota so close to us, we new it would be a difficult weekend.

Unfortunately for the second consecutive race there were no points for Red Bull Racing...
David had a difficult race and Mark was let down by his car. However, even without that, it would have been tough for him to score any points. We were missing some performance.

How have these missed chances been viewed by the team?
It is quite annoying, although the reasons for the poor result in Germany are different to those that affected us in Silverstone: while we had performance in Silverstone, we were simply off the pace in Germany. We found some specific difficulties with the Hockenheim track and hope we can rediscover our normal speed in Hungary next weekend.

Fortunately Toyota did not score either...
That means we are still a point off fourth place. But we must not forget that Renault is also in the battle. This position will be closely fought over until the end of the season.

Which circuits should suit you in the second half of the year?
Budapest should be good, as should Spa-Francorchamps. Fuji will be quite a difficult place for us, while Shanghai and Sao Paulo will be about average. For Monza, it's difficult to say, although our performance in Canada was good. Then there is also Valencia and Singapore which remain an unknown for everybody.

Comments

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1. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 19:16:25 by cirebox

... Fabrice and RF1PP, do ya think Budapest will be good for both Renault Engine Teams (I mean RF1 and RB)?

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2. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 19:32:36 by NandoFan

They say that STR has a small edge over RBR and Renault because their more powerful Ferrari engine.

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3. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 19:40:23 by amc

that's quite possible NandoFan - they only need to develop their car around the engine enough to gain the advantage even without having a better car than RB or Renault.

Whatever else though, considering Renault were well behind a good 4 teams in Australia and Bahrain, you have to give Renault the advantage in in-season development, which was always going to be Renault's bigggest strength compared to less experienced teams (although, williams dont have an excuse experience wise!).

I still believe this engine advantage Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and BMW have over Renault won't last beyond this year. If you think back to when the engine freeze took place, Renault engines were rather good (though still losing a bit to Ferrari and Merc), so any deficit is more related to how the car is being developed around everything else - like tyres.

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4. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 19:40:47 by RF1 Paddock Pass

Hi Cirebox. I don't think that Hungary will be to the advantage or disadvantage of the R28. We have seen the car work well on a range of circuits now and Hungary will be the latest challenge.

As for RBR, Fabrice says above that he thinks the track will suit them.

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5. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 20:18:57 by NandoFan

@amc: It was reported 2 months ago that Ferrari gained significant horsepower at Barcelona.
Ferrari claimed that the reason for this was a new oil system which is simply working better. It flows faster and brings more power. But it's also been said that Ferrari or instance redesigned their valve seats which also gained HP.

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6. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 20:40:06 by NandoFan

But with a little help from above and Tom Waits everything should work out fine. Sorry but couldn't resist posting this marvelous performance. :o)
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0GWKh26j ...

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7. Thursday 24 July 2008 at 21:07:44 by CAF904

Hi RF1 Paddock Pass... I wonder why is it so difficult for RF1 to get used to bridgestone tires. Would RF1 made bigger progress if michelin tires were still around?. And last but not least. With the new rules for 2009, will all those appendixes in the cars disappear, because honestly F1 cars are getting pretty ugly to the view in favor of performance.

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