Q&A with Fred Vasseur (Renault F1) before Montréal

After a Monaco Grand Prix to forget, Racing Director, Renault Sport Racing, Fred Vasseur gives his opinions.

What were the positives from Monaco?

The main positive is that the B specification power unit is working well and gives us good potential for the future. It’s a strong valuable step in terms of performance, both in headline power figures and in driveability. It was completely reliable too, so we are happy with progress there.

What is your evaluation of the Monaco weekend?

It’s true that Monaco was not a successful event for us; we left Monte Carlo with a lot of damaged parts, we didn’t finish the race with either car and we scored no points. The race took place in difficult conditions as we saw with Jolyon. Fortunately he was not hurt although the same cannot be said for his chassis.

Kevin’s call to change tyres was a good one even if he did get stuck behind Pascal Wehrlein longer than we wanted after the pit stop. His pace was not bad in clear running but Daniil Kvyat decided to end that for us. He was one lap down and it was a completely stupid move. It’s always difficult to have a good strategy in Monaco as you are dependent on what your rivals are doing as it’s so difficult to overtake there.

Elsewhere it was a good weekend for Renault Sport Academy driver Oliver Rowland who finished in third position in the GP2 Series Feature race. Another aspect to Monaco was that we generated a lot of interest with the F1 inspired R.S.16 Clio on track, we had a high profile guest in Tony Parker and a lot of Renault personnel were present as the race is the event nearest to being a French Grand Prix.

What can we expect in Montréal?

Hopefully a better weekend than we had in Monaco! We approach each race on its own merits so everyone has reset after Monaco and we’ll be looking for the best results possible. Both drivers will have the B specification power plant and we’ll have some new parts to try on the cars too.

We will have our Test Driver Nicholas Latifi joining the team to get an insight into how an F1 team works over the course of a race weekend. Nicholas had a strong start to his GP2 Series season with his Barcelona podium even if his weekend in Monaco was more challenging. He will drive in FP1 later in the year so his weekend in Canada is vital preparation.