Renault boss upbeat despite Kubica’s lack of pace

VALENCIA, Spain - New Renault director Eric Boullier said he was pleased on Tuesday with his team’s performance in pre-season testing here despite being bottom of the standings after two-days of racing.

By (AFP)

Published: Tue 2 Feb 2010, 11:34 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 4:48 AM

Their senior driver Robert Kubica finished 2.5 seconds behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who set the fastest lap time on Monday, with the Pole still two seconds behind the Brazilian one hour before the end of testing on Tuesday.

But Boullier insisted that they were just putting the new car through its paces and that Kubica’s times did not reflect the true value of the R30.

“We know what we’re doing. We’re not doing badly,” he said.

“There’s no point trying to perform for different reasons.

“The first is that we don’t know if the car will be viable. Secondly we don’t have all the developments on the car. So the conclusion is that we’re here to see its realiability.

“Maybe it’s more intelligent to keep a low profile, to validate all our elements,” Boullier told AFP, adding that Kubica’s slower times were a result of him driving “with a lot of petrol all the time.”

This factor is important, he said, because the new rules ban refuelling and have increased the amount of petrol allowed to be carried.

Renault - who on Sunday named Vitaly Petrov as their second driver for the campaign making him the first Russian to compete in Formula One - are coming back after a disastrous 2009 season which was tarnished by the ‘crash-gate’ scandal which led to the sackings of top team officials.

On the orders of Renault, Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, opening the door for team-mate Fernando Alonso’s remarkable win after he had started at the back of the grid.

Boullier added that they were targetting fourth place this season to lay the groundwork for a shot at the title in 2011.