More pics from Valencia, this time of Robert Kubica putting the new Renault R30 though its paces. Although, unfortunately for Renault their car is a bit off the pace at the moment. Kubica was the slowest of yesterday’s eight runners and while he has improved on his times already in day 2 of testing at Valencia he is still over 3 seconds from the head of the pack.
These are early days yet and Chief Race Engineer, Alan Permane,is cautiously optimistic, “A fairly positive first day of running with the R30 with Robert in the car. We concentrated on putting mileage on the car and spent time getting Robert comfortable in the car.”
Kubica will be the only Renault driver on track today, with Vitaly Petrov getting his first taste of serious F1 action in tomorrow’s final testing day.
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Having presented the R30 to the media yesterday, the Renault F1 Team kicked off its 2010 testing programme today in Valencia.
Robert Kubica was the man behind the wheel as the team’s 2010 challenger took to the circuit for the very first time shortly after 10:00am local time. The car was running with the distinctive black and yellow livery that was shown for the first time yesterday.
The team’s programme focussed on getting the car settled and getting Robert familiar with the new systems. This was also the team’s first opportunity to experience the narrower 2010-spec Bridgestone tyres. For the afternoon the team experimented with weight distribution.
Robert will remain in the car for a second day of running tomorrow. Vitaly Petrov will get his first laps in the car on Wednesday.
Robert Kubica: “My first day of testing the R30 went well. We had a lot of things to check on the car to make sure they were reliable and all that went smoothly with no big problems to report. Tomorrow we will start working on the balance and trying to understand the car a bit more. The narrower front tyres certainly had an impact on the car, but it’s difficult for me to judge as this is the first time I’ve driven the R30. Generally I think they will make the car understeer more in the quick corners.â€
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: “A fairly positive first day of running with the R30 with Robert in the car. We concentrated on putting mileage on the car and spent time getting Robert comfortable in the car. We also started learning about the behaviour of the R30 – what it likes, and how it responds to the narrower front Bridgestone tyres. Then we looked at the brake wear, which will be a key performance factor this year with the cars running heavy fuel at the start of the race. Overall it has been a productive day.â€