Keeping the cars out of the walls is the main point in Monaco

The GP2 teams had only three days time to travel from Barcelona to Monaco and prepare the cars for the legendary street circuit of the Principality at the Côte d’Azur. Racing Engineering, after scoring in both races of the opening round of this year’s GP2 championship, hopes to carry on with its strong performance in Monte Carlo. Both Racing Engineering drivers, Dani Clos and Christian Vietoris, are looking forward to being at the wheel of their Dallara GP2 cars on a circuit in which, given its very special characteristics, qualifying is the ever crucial session deciding the starting formation for Friday’s Feature race. While Dani has been racing in Monaco before, it will be Christian’s first time to race on the Mediterranean Principality’s narrow and twisty layout, where luck is sometimes the only key to find the suitable traffic-free moment to get a clean lap. Getting away from one of the front rows is more important in Monaco than on any other track, as the result of the entire weekend could almost totally depend on these thirty minutes. Racing Engineering’s president, Alfonso de Orleàns-Borbón lets us know is thoughts about the results achieved in Barcelona and the team’s expectations for Monaco.

Barcelona just finished and Monaco is about to start already. Dani had two solid races in front of his home crowd and started the season with a podium. What does this mean for him and the team in terms of encouragement for the rest of the season?

I believe the season is off to a good start. We still have some points that need to be improved, but generally, we are in a good position to fight for the championship. Everyone has worked very hard during the winter and it shows with the results we have had this weekend.

Unfortunately, Christian Vietoris’ debut in GP2 was tainted by a first corner incident , which caused him to retire from the feature race, and compromised his chances for the sprint race by starting from the back. Has he learnt from this incident and how might it affect him in regards to Monaco?

I think Christian would have also had a great weekend if he would not have been pushed by Perez in the first corner of the race. After that, it was difficult to try to get points in the second race when you start from the last row. But I think he is someone that understands what happens and will move on to Monaco without a problem. He is one of the most professional drivers I have ever met. Unfortunately, he has never seen the track before, so I think he will be at a slight disadvantage compared to the others in the championship. Although, I believe that he can make into the points if he manages to keep it out of the walls here.

After one race event of the 2010 season, where would you say are Racing Engineering’s and also its drivers’ main strengths this year?

Reliability and two very competitive drivers. If we just work as we have been, there is no reason to worry about anything except other taking our drivers out. We are very strong this year.

The team arrived in Monaco and everything is ready for round 2 of the 2010 GP2 Series. What are the expectations for this race weekend?

Main point, keeping the cars out of the walls. The rest will take care of itself. We know what we have to do for this race, so I believe we are well prepared for everything. Maybe the rain will come into play these days, but we will worry about it when the time comes.