What’s your outlook heading to the third race of the season? I’m really excited and I really want to get those first points on the board. Give me a normal race with no puncture and no penalty and I think we can do that! What are your previous memories of racing in the Chinese Grand Prix? My race in 2014 wasn’t the best, I struggled with the car I had, meaning I finished in thirteenth position. Certainly I’m hoping for a better result on my second visit. You’ve pushed very hard in the first two races with very promising race pace but it’s been ‘close but no cigar’in terms of points. Is that frustrating? It is pretty frustrating! That’s how it is in racing sometimes, but we are very close so that does give motivation. The car feels really good. Of course, we want more downforce and more power, but show me a race driver who doesn’t ask for that! Naturally I’m enjoying being back behind the wheel, pushing hard and overtaking, but you have so much work to do from the back that you can have a very strong race yet still finish in eleventh. If we start further up the order and don’t have a first lap incident good things can happen. What are your thoughts on the layout of the Shanghai International Circuit? The layout is interesting but it is a very wide circuit and there’s so much run-off area, it doesn’t feel as spectacular as it could be. It does have some really good fast corners; the entry to turn one is special in particular, you enter it from the fastest part of the track and by the end of what is a pretty long corner you’re at about 60kph! Where’s the overtaking potential? There are two DRS straights so that’s obviously where you look first for overtaking opportunities. The biggest chance is into the first turn as the DRS zone starts very late on the start-finish straight so you can get close to the car in front. That said, I’m always going to go for any opportunity no matter where it presents itself on a lap! What’s the target this time? We know our weaknesses and perhaps Shanghai’s not going to be the friendliest track for us in terms of these but I still think that if we have a good race we can challenge for points. I’m really pumped and excited.

What’s the challenge of the Shanghai International Circuit? I drove it last year in FP1 so I have a reasonable idea about the track. You can get pretty low temperatures there so there’s the challenge of long corners too, which means front tyre graining. It’s almost the exact opposite of Bahrain, which is rear limited. There are some very technical corners, like turn one that is pretty unique as it goes pretty much back on itself, on to the back straight, which is another long corner that induces graining on the front left. The straight is very long and there’s DRS so in the race you’ll be looking to be as close as possible to the car ahead to slipstream and make a move, then you’re considering your braking point. It’s one of the longest straights on the calendar and it’s right at the end of the lap. You really need to maximise the potential; you can’t afford to mess it up. The long straight means the tyres are being cooled and the brakes are being cooled; both of which you need to be working at their best when you get into the corner. Does the layout lend itself to racing? There are two sides to the track, you’ve got the really long straight with heavy braking at the end, then there’s the double DRS zones into the first corner as well so there’s overtaking opportunities there. The middle sector is more about high speed corners where it’s not so easy to follow the car ahead but the corner itself provides the challenge. There’ll always be the element of looking after the tyres in Shanghai Two race weekends in, is everything as you expected? Australia was a really good way to kick off the year and we were a little bit ahead of where we thought we’d be so all the pre-season preparation had paid off well. Bahrain was more challenging as it was a weekend where nothing really clicked but overall the feeling within the team is great. What’s your feedback from Bahrain? There were a few minor issues, which meant we weren’t able to optimise performance but we should have it all addressed for China. The car has a wellbalanced baseline and all we need is a little bit more performance. This is exactly what we have coming in the future, so everything’s good. How frustrating was it seeing your race evaporate away before you could take to the grid for the start? I was pretty gutted! You complete the entire race weekend, all the practice sessions, qualifying, all the debriefs and all that work for a race and to miss even the race start – when there’s the most adrenalin of the weekend, and the part you most look forward to – is really frustrating. The warm-up lap all went to plan, I was getting the tyres where I wanted them, then suddenly in the second to last corner I realised the hydraulic problem as the brakes, then the steering and then the gears went. It was disappointing for me and disappointing for the entire team. The thing about a Grand Prix is that there’s only one race on the weekend – whereas in every other series I’ve contested there is more than one race – so if you have a problem, that’s it; game over. To be packing up before you’ve seen the lights go off is disappointing. Watching the race from the garage, what were your thoughts? We knew that the race pace was going to be better than the qualifying pace so I was looking forward to moving up the order, just like we saw Kevin do. I think we should have both been able to have a good crack at the top ten.

What’s the challenge of the Shanghai International Circuit? China is an interesting circuit in terms of layout. The sensitivity is akin to the first two races, in that they’re all heavy power tracks so the relationship between drag, aero and power are similar but they each have unique aspects. The high speed first corner leading into tighter turn two and three is challenging for drivers with a variety of possible driving lines. What went wrong for Jolyon in Bahrain? It was a hydraulic pump that failed which is an extremely rare occurrence. The pump was just over a tenth of the way through its normal working life; usually if a component fails it’s very early in its life or near the end. We’re working with our supplier to ascertain the cause and have quarantined the batch of components until we can understand the issue. It was a great shame for Jolyon to have missed the race like that. What’s the feedback from Kevin’s race? It was good race from Kevin to finish just shy of the points from a pit-lane start to eleventh. He didn’t put a foot wrong and the three-stop strategy worked well. The R.S.16 performed well on the super softs in the race. Were it not for the penalty, Kevin should have started from a reasonable position on the grid and that could well have led to points. Where’s the performance of the R.S.16 relative to the opposition? On race pace there’s a very close group in the midfield; we saw this in Australia and we saw this in Bahrain. It means we need to maximise every opportunity we have and every performance increase we can find could mean the difference between finishing just shy of the points or scoring. Our qualifying pace has been behind our race pace in relative terms, so this is an area of focus, but one which goes hand-in-hand with the target of overall performance gains. How much has been learnt with the new tyres and tyre rules? We’re learning the compounds and how best to manage the potential allocations. It’s not been a huge surprise that everyone tends to run more on a softer compound than last year. There are different strategies available for those who want to do a stop less and run on a harder compound like we saw in Bahrain. There’s some variance but generally teams are dropping down one compound. Anything in the treat cupboard for round three? We do have some small aero parts to try, however we will have more further down the line with more aero and engine updates which should mean a tangible step forward. There’s a tight spread of cars ahead of us so we don’t need a lot to make a decent improvement.

Two races into the season, what are your observations of watching the team in action? Honestly, I can say I am impressed. The push and drive from the team is strong. That is not to say there are not improvements to be made. As everyone is learning, I am a stern taskmaster and there are many elements and details we’ll address. The key to success in motor racing is not just one aspect, it’s focusing on every detail. By making many small improvements we will work forwards. Where do you rate the performance on track? We are generally where we expected to be, but equally some way short of where we all want to be. We know it’s a long term project, but that doesn’t mean we will sit back. I want everyone fighting as hard for the position in front whether it’s P10 or P1. That’s how we’ll regain the success we want. In terms of race pace there are positive signs; we’re not so far from Williams and we’re not so far from finishing with points. This is a long term project; how much is the focus on this season and how much on the future? Either way, the focus is on being successful and delivering our maximum. We know that it’s unlikely that we will be on the podium or win races in 2016, but that is certainly our longer term aim. That doesn’t mean we are sitting back. We are determined to get the very best results at every race. We are racers, we will push. What did you think of the driver performance in Bahrain? Kevin’s race was similar to the one he had in Melbourne. He started from right at the back and pushed all the way. He showed strong racecraft and delivered a consistent mistake-free race. We know he is well aware of the weighbridge rules for the future so we’re confident we won’t get the same penalty again. Jolyon on the other hand was not able to demonstrate his performance and that’s because of a component on the car failing. Clearly no-one wanted this to happen and it’s something we are addressing. We’re all very sorry there was just one car in action for the race. What are the next targets? We have finished both races so far as the first car outside of the points so inside the points is where we need to be. For this we don’t only need to add performance to the car, we need to ensure our weekends are mistake-free in every aspect.