Vitaly Petrov has praised the improvement made by Renault since last season following their solid start to the 2011 Formula 1 campaign.
The Russian was in the points for the second time this year at the weekend, finishing 9th at the Chinese Grand Prix to follow up his podium finish in Australia during the opening race of 2011.
He is now 7th in the overall driver standings, a vast improvement from last year when he failed to finish any of the opening three races.
Highlighting the progress even further, he didn’t match his current points total of 17 until the twelfth race of 2010. It really has been an excellent start for him.
Discussing this improvement, Petrov said: ‘The car is much nicer to drive. The balance suits me very well. The team is doing a fantastic job. We have done two podiums so far this season, so I hope that we can fight back in Turkey.’
The second podium finish Petrov is talking about is that of his team-mate Nick Heidfeld who managed a third place finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix, so Renault really are a team on the up.
In the team standings, they sit 4th behind the ‘big three’ of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. They are 16 points clear of 5th placed Mercedes too, so they are without doubt the best of the rest.
It is crucial that they build on their good start though and keep achieving regular podium finishes. They have proved they can compete and it is time to do it consistently throughout the season.
Aware of the need to remain focused, Petrov continued: ‘We must still work on how to maximise the new Pirelli tyres. We improved it through P1, P2 and for qualifying so we know which areas to work on and what we need to do.’
‘We must continue to work hard, however, because we’re not where we want to be yet.’
Both Petrov and Heidfeld will be raring to go again by the time the Turkish Grand Prix comes around and perhaps they will use the break to work out the best way to use the Pirelli tyres.
Once they make the most of these, they can look at continuing their recent progress and enjoy the competitiveness of their car amongst McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari.
Who knows, this Renault duo could even have a Grand Prix win in their locker.
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