Grosjean sure there is more to come

Brimming with positive energy after his first points finish in Formula 1 last weekend, Romain Grosjean talks confidence, upgrades, and temperatures after a productive first day at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Romain, how would you sum up today’s running?

Overall it was not too bad. I think it’s been difficult for everyone here with the heat; it was quite cold in Shanghai whereas it’s very hot here in Bahrain so it’s a bit of a contrast. The team is working very hard as always to get the best out of the car; hopefully after analysing all the data tonight we can come back tomorrow and be even better; the E20 has a very good base line, and I’m sure there is more to come from it.

You took your first points of the season and of your Formula 1 career so far last week in China; has that helped you feel more settled coming into this weekend?

In this sport you are always under pressure to perform. Getting points on the board has given me a confidence boost after two disappointing races in Australia and Malaysia, but the most important thing is to keep scoring points for the team as we have high hopes for a good position in the Constructor’s Championship this season and everyone is giving their all to achieve that.

This time last week in China the team trialled an upgrade package but decided to revert back to the original setup for the race; are you testing those new parts again here?

We’ve tried a few new things and we’ll look at the results overnight before deciding which setup to run tomorrow. Within the next few hours we’ll have a good idea of what the best option for this circuit will be. The car was performing well already, and with different tracks and different weather conditions it’s hard to compare how much of an effect the new parts will have as these variations will affect the how the car feels. We’re making small steps in a number of areas, so hopefully this will benefit us over the weekend.

Do you think adapting the car setup to cope with the heat here will be a key factor this weekend?

It’s certainly a major consideration for sure. Coping with the heat, and in particular managing the tyre degradation will be the most important element to a good performance. It’s difficult to tell during testing how the tyres will behave during the race; we can make pretty accurate predictions but we’ll have to wait and see what happens over the 57 laps.

After the low temperatures in China, the general consensus was that the E20 performs better in warmer conditions; do you think this has been proven from what you have seen today?

I think so, but as always practice is not really an indicator of true performance; we’ll only know for sure where we stand once we get to qualifying and the race. Every team will have been running different programmes today so it’s difficult to compare. I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow and we’ll take things from there.