Carlos Sainz ends his first week of pre-season testing as a rider Renault with the feeling of not having begun to perform test that to be productive in the face to the performance of the car. Despite this, the Spanish pilot, who has divided the work with Nico Hülkenberg, has been the fourth-most laps completed of the entire grill, with a total of 151, 60 of them in the day of today, in which he has finished with the fifth best time of the day (1:20.929) and the eleventh best of the week.
Sainz rolled with some regularity in the morning in wet conditions, but it was not until the afternoon when began the actual work: “there Has been a window of 15:30 to 16:30, in which the temperature of the track was reasonable, and I have been able to make a couple of batches with the pneumatic means and starting to feel the car of 2018. There is a large margin since we started to try it out properly until we start to configure it to my liking, but at least we were able to complete some long runs interesting,”, has declared that the Spanish rider with the media. “it Has been a day really positive, but until next week I won’t be able to start to do test, which is what we have come”.
It’s time! @Carlossainz55 takes the wheel of the R. S. 18 for the rest of today. #RSspirit #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/WH8hnDVJQk
— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) March 1, 2018
The pilot of Renault is one of the seven that has obtained his best time of the week with the pneumatic means, and the best out of Mercedes and Red Bull, standing at about six-tenths of the record of Max Verstappen. Sainz appreciates this fact: “there are Not many teams, apart from Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, who have done a quick time with the pneumatic means. That is a positive sign means that heat that tire, but in Melbourne the track will have 40 ° C, so that this positive factor does not need to be there”.
all in all, the spaniard argues that, under their opinion, there are no differences in lap times between the medium and the soft tyre with which 12 of the 21 pilots have marked his best time, along a course: “The soft is faster at the beginning, but when the gas goes down in the long run, the left front wheel is rolled back completely. With the middle, you’re five laps to riding on ice, peleándote to not end up in the gravel. Once starts to operate, the tyre is consistent with the one that you can roll in the same times during the rest of the batch”.
The confidence with the car is the high priority
In his appearance before the media, Sainz insisted on several occasions on the need to ensure that the car is according to your tastes and riding style, particularly in the face of the appointment opening in Australia, after facing in the last few races, 2017, a vehicle that did not conform to them: “Melbourne is not a circuit easy in which to start the season, you need to have confidence in the car, and for that I want to take the car to my liking. Last year I did not do any test with the Renault and I had to drive a car that is developed by other pilots, on the basis of certain styles of riding. To that are the test. We will need a week to clean”.
The potential results of Renault this season has sparked the curiosity of many members of the paddock. While Sainz made it possible for clear issues of that style, pronounced on the statements Toto Wolff claimed that Renault would be the team who makes the biggest leap in terms of performance: “we Can be grateful to Toto for saying that, because it shows that there are good feelings in our team, and the people realize that we are working to make things right. We have ambitious goals, but realistic”.
His realism, however, does not take away from ambition. Do not reject the cartel capping, and ensures that you would like to be “a little closer” a second and a half of the area of the head, which ensures that “it is no secret that Hamilton and Ferrari are going to be playing pole position in Australia”. To reach Q3 and fight for points regularly, it seems the scope of the Spanish pilot, but before there is left to do what you came to do in Barcelona: test.
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