Q & A Bruno Senna Jerez Test Day Three

Q: First impressions of the car?
BS: Well it was a good day it was very reliable we managed to fulfil our test programme today. We got some good information, it is nice docile car to drive but we need to still explore a lot the setup options and I think there is good potential to extract from
the car. So I am looking forward to the next few test days and I am sure we can get a lot more than we did today.

Q: Last year you drove a Renault powered car, now this year you drive a Renault powered car can you compare it in anyway?
BS: The engines are very similar in terms of behaviour of course in testing you don't run the same sort of horsepower or engine map as you do on a race weekend. The main difference from last year to this year is the position of the exhausts and what it does when you are off and on the throttle. so I feel that the engine is more drivable than last year because you don't have the same aggressiveness on the exhaust.

Q: I was watching at the chicane the car did not look particularly great in terms of riding the kerbs. Do you think it Will this be explained by the setup. How are you finding it?
BS: Yeah we need to improve a few bits and pieces that riding kerbs or something that the car was not particularly strong at. So its a lot to do and fortunately we have some testing time to do that. Today was a great day in terms of kilometres and it is work in progress and there is more time to be made by making the car a little bit more neat everywhere.

Q: What are your goals and targets for the year?
BS: Well of course this year is going to be very tough very competitive but at the same time it is very good I am having the same preparation as everyone else so you know umm Pastor is a very quick guy and I have great competition in-house so I think the first
objective is to be competitive against him and then you know its for myself as a competitive driver in Formula one every year I try to improve and get better and experience always helps so hopefully for myself that will be very much guaranteed for next year.

Q: You say that you have not done a huge amount of setup work what exactly have you done, are you still running in kind of the start setup and just concentrating on other areas?
BS: Well we have been basically focusing on testing different bits and pieces of the car and we of course had slightly limited run yesterday and the day before so we did not go through all the functional tests and today we are not focusing very much on the
setup of the car for performance but more on the reliability and also trying various bits and pieces to find a scope of changes we can have for opportunities in the future.

Q: A lot of the is for the drivers to understand the platform that they have got and feeling confident knowing where they are at. Do you feel that you are at that stage?
BS; Well it is only my first day so I can say that I know the car well but that there is still more lap time to be extracted from the car and again today's objective was not to be the fastest on the track it was to be ah have a good consistent work and we achieved that we have many long runs that we got some good information from and when the time comes to push hard and do a very fast lap we can show some good stuff.

Q: Is it comfortable, did it feel good?
BS: It feels nice, it feels very nice to drive it is docile so that I think we need to make it a bit harder (laughter)

Q: More aggressive?
BS: We need to definitely explore the setup options and go the wrong way and then the right way and find out what's the optimum.

Q: How about the tyres on the long runs. Is there rear degradation?
BS: The rear degradation is there the Pirelli tyres are very similar to last year but there are a few differences on the new compounds but I think they are going to continue providing some good racing throughout this year. But for the team they are much more experienced and the teams have already designed the cars in a way that the degradation is more benign that last year so I suppose but in any case we had some good long runs ... it is a work in progress.

Q: Are there anything's that surprised you in a positive or negative way?
BS: Well I think just the traction is a good surprise it is nice and easy on the rear tyres so it is a big change from the car we had last year with the poor traction but it is a different concept of a rearend for the car and I think we need to still explore that and make it stronger and try to make it one of the strongest features as well.

Q: Do you suppose it will be the first Barcelona test before you can are really able to get a decent baseline setup out of this car and to really start to explore the car?
BS: Well first of all Barcelona is a much more relatable track to ever other track on the championship this (Jerez) a very peculiar track same thing as Paul Ricard if you go to a few track if you setup your car for that track you go slow everywhere else. So we are focusing on learning about the car here but Barcelona for sure the setup work will be much more ah relevant and that's what we are aiming for.