Q&A with James Allison (Lotus Renault GP technical director)

With few overtaking opportunities available at the Hungaroring, James explains how qualifying will play a key role in the outcome in Budapest. What are the challenges of the Hungaroring?

Like Monaco, the Hungaroring is all about qualifying. DRS will skew things a little, but it will remain very tough to overtake. Getting a good qualifying lap will involve having a car which has a good high downforce setup and is able to cope with some of the bumps around the track.

Should this be a circuit which suits the R31?

We were not too special at Monaco this year, another high downforce track, but I think we have resolved some of the issues that bedevilled us there and we are hopeful of a better outing in Hungary.

This is a track which traditionally sees a lot of surface evolution – how difficult is it working with a moving target?

It is tough for race engineers and drivers alike. Setup changes normally yield results which are of the order of 0.1sec/lap, but the track evolution can be over 1sec/lap. The challenge is the same for all teams however.

We’re now in the second half of the season - what’s the development plan and how much resource and attention is paid to the R32?

We have quite lot of improvements to deliver over the next five races. These developments are largely as a result of research work that is already complete, leaving us with the task of designing and manufacturing them for use in the races. By the time the summer break is complete, most of our factory research resource and around half of our manufacturing capacity will have transferred to next year’s car.

The August break is soon upon us - how frustrating is it locking up the factory and will you be musing concepts and solutions in the bath during the break?

The rules regarding not working during the FOTA shutdown are quite strict, but they have not closed off the bath musing loophole - two weeks of continuous bathing may be called for! The shutdown is a little frustrating in one sense, but it is a settled part of the sport now, and it allows the teams to take a well-earned break.