. QUOTES

N icola Larini :“We have managed a very thorough test programme this year. We may not have had as much time as we had last year, but the time was used in the best possible way thanks to the team’s experience and a very reliable car. In Jerez alone I managed to do some 2,000 kilometres without a single problem, which allowed us to just concentrate on development rather than problem solving. We are now at a much better level of preparation than we were last year, so I’m sure we’ll be good all season. Exactly how good is difficult to say of course, because even though we tested at the same time as some of our competitors it is difficult to gauge their progress. Nevertheless we’re confident we can score points in both races at any given race weekend. The addition of three new venues will also level out things a bit. I only hope the organisers will change the qualifying system for the street races in order to avoid accident packed sessions like we had in Macau.”

Alain Menu: “The biggest change for me when compared to last year is that I have a new race engineer, a guy with loads of experience. The two of us will have to learn to work together, which will take a race or two before we have found the right symbiosis where you can communicate and understand each other without necessarily having to talk too much. In the long run these changes will be better for the team as a whole. As for the tests, I still have to learn the car, still looking for the ideal set-up, but it in any case it definitely looks more promising than it ever did before the start of a new season. Whereas before the two previous seasons we were constantly hampered in our test efforts by the bad weather, this time we’ve had the weather gods on our side and managed to rack up a phenomenal number of test miles, which underlines the reliability of the car. I therefore think it should be possible to go for points at each race, which should allow us to be within the top five at the end of the season.”