– A little more than a day has pasted since the Chinese Grand Prix ended. Have you had a chance to celebrate your first F1 points in your career?
– Of course, I am satisfied with the results in Shanghai. But nonetheless not completely satisfied. My goal isn’t seventh place. I am ready to fight for a higher place on the pedestal.
– But after not finishing in three races, ending up in the top ten is certainly a success!
– Yes. At the start of the race we were faced with a difficult decision – what to do with the tires. Most of the competition made a pit stop to change them, but that turned out to be not the wisest decision. I decided to stay with the slicks…
– Did you make that decision yourself?
– No, it was a team decision together with my racing engineer Mark Slade. We turned out to be right, and Renault did a great job ensuring that throughout the race I had the right tire sets.
– On the 19th lap you flew of the track before making it to the pit stop for a tire change… Did you think then that you would once again fail to finish the race?
– There was no time to think about that. I understood what I needed to do and when the car spun out all I thought about was not losing my position. Anyway, the track is no place for emotions. When you are on the track, you do your work, hard work. Feelings, especially stress or doubt, only get in the way.
– Did you get upset when the safety car pulled out on the track and you lost your lead over the group following you? After all, you were in fourth place!
– Yes, I didn’t understand why they sent the car out at all. The pieces from wing of Alguersuari’s car were in a relative safe place. And then later the commentators told me that after Toro Rosso fell apart, they cleared the pieces before the safety car even pulled out onto the track! Of course, it got in my way.
– Do you think you had a realistic chance of making it onto the podium?
– That’s not something I’m not even thinking about. It was my first finish and I got six points – that’s a good result. And it probably could have been better. But I’ll be thinking about the podium a bit later.
– At the point when the safety car came out, you were about 50 seconds behind the first three cars, where your partner Robert Kubica was in third place. Despite the safety car it took you quite a while to catch up to him… Were you intentionally trying to hold up the pack to help him?
– I was simply doing my job. I have my race and Kubica has his. In general, our team doesn’t do such things.
– What would you say about the job Renault did this weekend?
– I get the impression that Renault is one big family! The mechanics did a great job getting my car renovated prior to the qualifications after I had smashed it up on the last practice. I was very glad and was able to thank them for by earning some points. Right now the car is running quite well. Of course, there is a lot of work left to do to make it faster, but we all have a positive outlook, and we are doing everything possible to take it up a notch at the next race in Spain.
– Vitaly, you always get off to a great start – what’s your secret?
– I can’t explain it. It’s simply an ability to work the clutch. To feel the moment when to step on the gas, and that’s all.
– And you have another strong point – the ability to drive in the rain. Two wins in raining GP2 races and then seventh place in the Chinese Grand Prix only confirm this. Did you learn from Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher?
– I am often asked about this. When it rains and the track is wet, the automobile gets a certain feel. When on wet asphalt, different perception mechanisms turn on… Some have a feeling for slippery conditions, and others not. It seems that I manage this better than a lot of my competitors.
– It seemed that at the start of the race you were playing it very cautiously, as if just trying to finish the race. At what point did you realize that you were in a position to fight for a high place?
– I didn’t, as you say, set myself the goal of simply making it to the finish. Any driver, when he starts, thinks about achieving the maximum, and not just finishing. On the other hand, at the very beginning I understood that it was very important to save my tires. I know that prior to the first pit stop Robert complained about major wearing on his right front tire. My engineer told me via radio to keep an eye on this wheel. So it wasn’t easy to determine how aggressively I could drive. No one knew whether the track would remain wet or dry out. And some water was getting into my helmet, which also created some difficulties. So I tried to go as fast as I could from the very beginning, but it was on the wet track near the finish that I turned out to be faster than пелотона by about three seconds. I think that the tires of most of my competitors at that moment were not in as good a condition as mine.
– Describe your attack on Schumacher on the 52nd lap.
– I saw that Michael’s car was not as fast as mine: I was gaining about four seconds per lap on him! There was no sense in waiting – once the opportunity opened up, I took the inside corner and sped away from the Red Baron.
– Did you have any thoughts such as, “I passed Schummy!” Wasn’t Michael at some time a hero for you?
– I wasn’t really a F1 fan. I always loved rallies more. I only started seriously thinking about making it into the “king’s races” about five years ago. At that time, Schumacher was the start of the ball. So he was probably a hero of sorts… Although, actually no, he was more like an example of an excellent racer!
– What was your first thought when you saw the checkered flag?
– I DID IT!!!
