PAUL HEADS TO Malaysia this week for the second round of the Formula One World Championship at Sepang near Kuala Lumpar. The Force India racer, who scored his first world championship point on his debut in Melbourne a week ago, spoke withJim McGill to preview the second grand prix of the season before hopping on a flight to Malaysia via Dubai.
JM: You drove at Malaysia last year in your role as Force India test driver; what are your memories of the circuit?
PdR: It's quite a good circuit. Obviously the biggest thing there is the heat, it's quite intense. The circuit itself obviously changes with the weather, because it basically rains there every day; it's very much dependant on the weather. I just have to hope I don't lose valuable track time over the weekend because of the weather.
PdR: It's quite a good circuit. Obviously the biggest thing there is the heat, it's quite intense. The circuit itself obviously changes with the weather, because it basically rains there every day; it's very much dependant on the weather. I just have to hope I don't lose valuable track time over the weekend because of the weather.
Does the circuit at Sepang suit your driving style?
It's difficult to predict, given how little I drove it last year. What I do remember is I enjoyed the track. It has a good flow to it; some high speed, some low speed and some very long corners which are tricky on the brakes, which I think are going to be a trickier this year.
And it was interesting after Australia; we discovered the high degradation we'd experienced in pre-season testing with the Pirellis has disappeared and we had what we would categorise as 'normal' tyre wear.
It's difficult to predict, given how little I drove it last year. What I do remember is I enjoyed the track. It has a good flow to it; some high speed, some low speed and some very long corners which are tricky on the brakes, which I think are going to be a trickier this year.
And it was interesting after Australia; we discovered the high degradation we'd experienced in pre-season testing with the Pirellis has disappeared and we had what we would categorise as 'normal' tyre wear.
You've been in the simulator this week; how much did that help?
Quite a bit; I did the simulator sessions the other day and ran through some stuff. We got some good directions regarding what we want to do with the car, but obviously we'll need to wait and see when we arrive there with the car in real-life conditions before we decide exactly how we'll set the car up.
Quite a bit; I did the simulator sessions the other day and ran through some stuff. We got some good directions regarding what we want to do with the car, but obviously we'll need to wait and see when we arrive there with the car in real-life conditions before we decide exactly how we'll set the car up.
You said after Australia that you feel the car needs more speed; are there any changes planned for Malaysia and China?
We've got some small things, but nothing major. The main changes will come when we return to Europe.
We've got some small things, but nothing major. The main changes will come when we return to Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment