Tell us about the Yas Marina Circuit; is it a track you enjoy driving?
It’s always a special event and with it being the final race on the calendar this year, it’s going to be even more exciting. Away from the track, the people are always really welcoming, the weather is great and the place is spectacular. The pit and paddock complex is also amongst the best there is with excellent facilities.
What about the circuit layout?
The first sector at the circuit stands out with Turns 2, 3 and 4 being particularly enjoyable and the final sector is incredibly picturesque. Although it is a reasonably new track on the calendar, the team has built up a lot of data from the five previous races there and various post-season testing sessions, so we’re used to the challenging set-up dilemma it poses. It’s a twilight race so it’s all about finding a balance between the hot daytime conditions and cooler temperatures when the sun sets. I’m sure it’s going to be one of the best races of the year. It’s been fun driving there in the past so I’m hoping to have another good race at Yas Marina.
What is going to be the biggest challenge given the initial fast straight and slow-speed corners later in the lap?
I think it’s going to be tough for us in general to be honest but it shouldn’t be too bad. I think it’s crucial that we try and improve our qualifying pace because as soon as we are in the top twelve, things should be on the up and we’ll be in a good position to fight for points. We’ve seen that our race pace is quite competitive so it’s all about starting from the highest grid position possible. We know this is an area we need to make big strides forwards and Romain and I are working closely with the engineers to improve our qualifying results.
Pirelli are bringing the soft and super soft tyre allocation to Abu Dhabi for the first time. Could that help?
We’ll have to wait and see but I certainly hope so. We struggled a lot at the last race in Brazil with the soft compound but Interlagos is a short track and the weather conditions were pretty variable, whereas Abu Dhabi should be consistently hot. It’s difficult for me to say beforehand because there’s still a lot to discover with the car, so we’ll just have to hope for the best. Tyre wear is incredibly difficult to predict because it often relies heavily on the situation and how the car is handling. What is certain is that we will be aiming to score points, which would be great given that they will be doubled at this event. To round off a difficult year with a solid haul of points would provide that extra motivation for everyone back at Enstone.
Brazil was an entertaining race with plenty of action and stops. What did you make of it?
It was a great race with plenty of action for the fans, who are so knowledgeable in Brazil. It wasn’t the best for us as we were expecting to be in the points, but we gave our maximum and came out with a result which wasn’t too bad. I think we got the best out of the car although it might have been possible to get P10 given a bit of luck. It was just those couple of mistakes which we ended up paying for. We’ll be aiming to learn from them and avoid repeating them here to maximise our results. It’s the last race of the season so we have nothing to lose and we’ll just be focusing hard on ironing out any issues with next year in mind.