Boullier: We will try to be in the top six for qualifying

After a solid race in India, Team Principal Eric Boullier talks us through how qualifying higher in Abu Dhabi will be key to bringing home more Championship points for the team, keeping up the pressure on McLaren for third place for the Constructors title…

Talk us through your thoughts on the race in India last weekend and looking ahead to Abu Dhabi…

It was a frustrating race in India; we clearly showed some good pace there and obviously the race we were held up quite considerably. We know that with a better qualifying result and a different race situation we could have definitely brought more Championship points home. I would say that our performance in India is good for the morale of the troops before the final three races, because we know we could have taken some points from Ferrari and McLaren. That’s our aim in the next races.

What’s in store from the team in Abu Dhabi?

I think we have some interesting developments coming for Abu Dhabi which should allow us to have more speed and even better performance from the car. Ideally this should put us in a position to have a more successful qualifying and definitely also help us in the race itself. Therefore, we look ahead to Abu Dhabi as being an interesting race for us. We will try to be in the top six for qualifying, and maintain or improve that for the race to bring some important points home.

Tell us about Romain’s race in India, he’s making good progress…

Romain did very well in India. He stayed out of trouble making a good, clean start and then went on to have a very good race. Throughout the race he was pushing hard and made some good overtaking manoeuvres. Compared with Korea when he had to be slightly more cautious, he is now back in the mood of racing and fighting. It’s good and I think he is on the way to recovery and has really shown exactly why he deserves to be where he is.

Kimi has just renewed his contract with the team, how are you feeling about it?

Obviously I’m very happy that Kimi is staying with us, as we were expecting. It is nice to see that Kimi has found a home here and is happy to develop and progress with the team. It is also rewarding for us to have a World Champion like Kimi committing to us and helping the team to achieve its goal of being a top team next year.