Welcome back! How did you spend your summer break? I went back to Denmark for some time off and ignored training for a bit! But soon enough I missed racing and got back to the gym. The second part of the year gives you a good reason to train – there’s a lot travelling and you need to be on form. We’ve now go for the second part of the season. What lessons have you learnt from the first half of the year? I think we have learned that it’s a challenging year and our focus should be on just that: learning. We now know our level of performance and where we are in the field. While we need to try and get the most out of this year, we will now focus on putting everything we have learned into next year and maximising opportunities in 2017. What are your thoughts on the challenge that is Spa-Francorchamps? I love it. I remember the first lap I did there in 2009 in a Formula Renault 2.0 car. That car is way too slow for the track! You need an F1 car as it is just so big. I feel very lucky to have done it now as you can appreciate the flow and speed of the corners. I love Eau Rouge – even though it’s flat now it’s still so enjoyable to go through. On top of Eau Rouge you can run the kerb and straightline a lot so it’s a bit of a shame it’s not gravel or wall on the outside as would make it even more of a challenge. In the wet it is still a massive corner and you can guarantee it will be wet at some point over the weekend! It’s one of my favourite corners. How do you deal with that famous changeable weather at Spa? The track is so long that it can be wet in one part of the track and dry in the other. In these cases your normal cut off points for intermediate, wet and dry tyres go out of the window as you have to judge how much you will gain on slicks in some corners versus the risk of wet in other. It’s one of the main difficulties of Spa. Which of your Spa races stand out for you? I have won in everything I have raced, except F1, but I have had some fun races. I held back Alonso for the whole race…he was very annoyed with me and I actually ended up getting a penalty for defending too hard, but I definitely enjoyed that one! You seemed to take a step forward in Germany, do you think this form can continue in Spa? The car felt good and we were competitive in the first two stints on the supersoft tyre but ran too long on them. The two stop strategy didn’t really work but at least we showed at the start that we were competitive. With the right strategy we could have fought with Toro Rosso at the end of the race. I hope we can be at this level in Spa again.

Good to see you Jo, what did you get up to over the summer? I had a week of holiday in Corfu with some friends. It was fun to have a week off to do what I wanted. Then I had two weeks to get back in the zone! What were your thoughts on Spa when you first encountered its flowing corners and long straights? When I first drove it thought, I remember I thought it was incredible. The first thing that hits you is Eau Rouge. It’s just awesome. You see it on TV, or on the onboards or on the Xbox, but it is even better the first time you drive it. Nothing prepares you for heading flat out down the hill and then coming up the other side and down that straight. In the dry we are now easily flat, maybe just slightly under with high fuel in the race, but it’s a real corner. Any other corners that grab your attention? The whole circuit feels very flowing and you can appreciate the size of it. Pouhon is a very quick double apex left and it is probably the biggest challenge now. It also goes downhill so you pick up so much speed – even with the run off, if you get it wrong you’ll be off. Blanchimont is now easy flat but leads into the Bus Stop chicane, which is a great overtaking place when you scream round at the end of a fast lap. It’s very easy to get wrong, but hard to get right. How have you fared in your races in Spa? I actually won my first race at Spa, which was in Formula Palmer Audi. I remember it was wet – as always for Spa! I’ve had podiums in GP2 since but have always missed a win somewhere. I also started on the front row last time I went there. I’ve had some good memories but I’m eager to make some more! What do you need to do well in Spa? Qualifying is important, but in the race overtaking is easier than at other races. The biggest thing is to keep one eye on the weather as you always need to be on the right tyres at the right time. If you get caught out it’s such a long lap that it can take you two minutes to get back to the pits and change tyres, by which time you would have lost so many positions. Would you have liked to drive the old circuit at Spa? I would absolutely love to look round some of the old tracks like Spa and the Nordschleife and have a drive. I have seen old videos of the races there – each circuit is unique and incredibly high speed; I don’t think people liked going slowly back then!

We’re just over the halfway point of the season and you’ve had a little over six months to have a good look at the team. How would you review everything so far? It’s been a genuine challenge. Clearly we are not as competitive as we would have liked, but in some respects we are not surprised at this form. All teams are finding it hard to unlock real performance gains, partly due to the current stability in regulations that makes it tricky to find the final parts of the puzzle. It’s also partly due to a concerted effort on 2017, which will see big regulation changes. It’s not just hard for us, but for everyone on the grid. That said, we have been very good at finding our strong points and exploiting them, and since Hungary we have seen some genuine progress. What would you rate as the team’s strong points? Firstly, there is the very obvious point that we are a works’ team and can shape the destiny of our engine and chassis. This is only shared by Mercedes and Ferrari, so it’s a real advantage. We can fully integrate the two different areas and make the sum of the whole more than the sum of its parts. It is an important facet of our performance and we need to be able to exploit it better than others. Secondly there is the heritage of the team and the hunger for championship success. I can see a real determination to return to the same levels of success. Even though we need to build up to winning, you can see there is a drive, will and experience to recapture what we achieved in the past. Since Renault returned we have also had increased investment flowing into the team. Some tired facilities have, or will be, refreshed, the sites are being developed and we are building up the headcount. This is all part of a long-term plan as some areas, particularly recruitment, take time to come on stream. You mentioned that 2017 is a big challenge. With half of 2016 already run, how do you split resources in the second part of the year? It’s a difficult call to decide on the resource split and it really depends on your aspirations for 2016 versus your aspirations for 2017 to decide when to switch. As per most teams we are now winding up 2016 and putting all our effort into 2017. Spa is a fearsome challenge on the calendar. How do you think the team will fare in Belgium? Spa is the longest track of the year at 7km and very fast with a good mix of high and medium speed corners, sweeping sections and some low speed corners in the mix. There’s also elevation changes and you always have unpredictable weather too! It will be difficult for us, but the work we have done in the last races should stand us in good stead. We’ve got a better handle on car balance and I think we should be able to keep our current level of performance. We’ve not got a major upgrade, but we should see the progress made in the last two races transfer forward to Spa. We fought with Haas and Toro Rosso and I think we are capable of getting on their tails again. There will be some developments coming through that were scheduled to come on stream in the second part of the year so even though our focus will primarily be on 2017 after the shutdown, we should still be able to improve upon our current level of form.

Did you take anything positive away from the German Grand Prix? The team is now in a period where we are moving forward. In the German race we fought with Haas and Toro Rosso, which shows our overall level has improved. However, we made an error in strategy, which cost one or two places. We made two stops, which was not an issue, but we did the two stops at the wrong time. Nevertheless there were some strong positives – we got to Q2 with Jo and punched above our weight in the race. We now need to keep fighting with the same competition and adapt our strategy moving forward. What would you like to see from the team in the second part of the season? If you look at the last two or three events, we are improving but we need to be focussed on the smaller details. We need to look at set-up and strategy and make sure we are doing a better job compared to the last events. We also need to understand tyre management a bit better. Over the last two or three races we have looked at it a lot and we have a much better understanding now, so we need to keep on with this trajectory. We are improving on the grid but if you look at race pace we are always better off than in qualifying. This means we need to get more from the Saturday situation. We are going in the right direction but we need to find two or three tenths and it is in the smaller details we need to improve and find it. When can we expect a decision on the 2017 line-up? This is a question we will get asked until we announce the drivers, and maybe even afterwards! At the moment our focus is to keep getting the best from the car. We have two drivers that are motivated so the second part of the year is to keep track of expectations and see where we are. In reality we won’t take any decision before September for sure – we have no time! But it is up to us and we will take a decision when we are ready.