Interview with Robert Kubica

Robert, after four weeks of winter testing, how are you feeling?

Overall I feel good and well integrated with the team. My first test in Valencia was a big learning experience and there were a lot of new things to understand, especially the behaviour of the car and the systems. The team worked hard to make the changes I needed in time for the Jerez tests and we then found a good balance with the car and were quite competitive. This final test in Barcelona has been more difficult and we lost some important running time. But with the work we did in Jerez I’m quite confident that we have learned enough about the car to be ready for Bahrain.

How have you found running with the heavy fuel loads?

It depends on the day and which tyres you are running. What will be important this year is to have a nice balance for the car over the full race distance with the changing fuel loads. You have to find the best set-up compromise between low and high fuel to have the best overall performance from the car.

What is the plan for your final day in the car on Sunday?

We hope to have some new parts, including a new front wing, arrive so that I can try them on Sunday. It will not be the final package that we will use in Bahrain, but we will get an idea of whether the upgrades will give us the advantage we expect. It will be interesting to see if the predictions we saw in the wind tunnel are reflected in reality at the track.

Do you have any idea of where we stand relative to the other teams?

It’s so difficult to judge where we are because it changes from day to day and we don’t know what the other teams are doing or what stage of development they are at. Also, every team will have more upgrades before the first race. As I said, we were looking very promising in Jerez, but we still need more overall grip. So let’s see what impact the new parts have tomorrow; that will give us a better idea before we go to Bahrain.