Alan Permane: "A very positive result"

Sunday 7 September 2008, 17:56:28 | RF1 Paddock Pass

Spa-Francorchamps . Alan Permane

The Chief Engineer of the ING Renault F1 Team looks back on the Belgian Grand Prix.

 

Alan, how was the race for you?
Good. I think we can be satisfied with our performance today, and we have clearly shown that on a dry track we have the third fastest car. Before the start, we thought that 5th position would be great, and so we are delighted to finish a place higher.

What happened in the final laps?
Because of the rain, Fernando said that it would be impossible for him to do another lap without ending up in the barriers! The grip was non-existent and he asked to stop and change tyres. That probably cost us a place and a point, but we avoided the risk of an accident and retirement by making this decision. In terms of our fight in the constructors' championship, it was the right call.

What happened to Nelson?
He was very heavy on fuel because he was going to do a one-stop strategy, but the track was very slippery and he hit a wet patch and made a mistake. Without that, it would have been possible to aim for the top 10. It's a shame.

The good news is that you are only 6 points behind Toyota...
Yes, and our main objective is to finish fourth in the championship. We are continuing to push hard for this with new aerodynamic parts arriving for Monza and also for Singapore. We are convinced that we can accomplish this mission.

Comments

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1. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:03:36 by Diki

Yea,gooooooooooooooooooooooo guys!!!!!!!!

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2. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:14:21 by adam20692

timo glock has been handed a 25 second penalty for passing under yellow flags

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3. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:18:11 by clemo

argh! link hasn't copied -
autosport has a report of hamilton getting a 25 sec penalty - massa wins, hamilton 3rd

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4. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:19:31 by clemo

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php ...

thats better heres the link

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5. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:23:49 by dilettante

now for whole next week, we're gonna see gibberish from all news sources. This has spoiled a brilliant weekend.

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6. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:24:11 by adam20692

doesnt realy do us any good

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7. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:24:29 by clemo

shame it wasn't 29 secs

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8. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:30:43 by dilettante

@7
yeah...so true

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9. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:44:57 by clemo

I'm no Lewis or McClaren fan but actually feel slightly sorry for Lewis (never thought i'd say that!) that was great racing to watch and to lose the win must be an awful feeling.
Have to say i know rules are rules but i really dislike all these penalties imposed for this, that and the other especially when there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the levels of penalty-
would rather races were won on the track.

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10. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 18:53:59 by R71

Hi all, my first post. Agree with you clemo.. .fantastic racing, however Hamilton took/got too much advantage when cutting the chicane

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11. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 20:08:13 by adam20692

R71 he didnt gain any advantage what so ever he let raikkonen get back past AND he was pushed wide and forced to cut the chicane

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12. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 21:00:03 by teomolca

#9 and #11 remember Suzuka 2005??, Alonso got handed a drive through penalty for doing exactly the same as Lewis today, so at least FIA was consistent. I want to think they did it because of consistency and fairness and not the fact a Ferrari driver got benefited both times.

Back to the topic I disagree with Mr. Permane, take a look at the fast laps and look where Alonso is behind BOTH Toro Rosso and BOTH BMW, we don't have the 3rd fastest car, we just happen to have the best driver on the grid by far, but not every day we race in a driver's track with changing conditions.

Luckily for us Toyota f***ed up today.

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13. Sunday 7 September 2008 at 22:39:15 by manuStudio

This penalty make the FIA looks bad. Once again.

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14. Monday 8 September 2008 at 08:00:56 by marsiandeneersten

But Spa gave us spectators a very nice race!
Go Renault Go

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15. Monday 8 September 2008 at 13:01:22 by chuckovski

Hey it was a great race, cars looked fast.

I thought Piquet had gear box trouble, that's what ITV commentary said ... any comments? They said he lost 6th gear.

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16. Monday 8 September 2008 at 16:18:41 by Kiss

Finally a good result and finally the next race will be to Monza.Bye Bye......

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17. Monday 8 September 2008 at 18:24:10 by rupert

hi,

great to see some progress!! and af back to his normal self rather than tripping over his own foot..

with lewisgate (someone had to do it!) what do you expect? ferrari are the team that's pushed the engine regs to the max (cheating filth!) and EVERY time there is a problem it seems to land heads up for ferrari.. it gets boring to even think about!! even charlie whiting said the move was legit...

lets hope massa's engine has a few secrets to reveal!!

rup

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