GP Canada preview with Tonio

After picking up ten points in seven Grands Prix Tonio is now looking forward to round eight of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the Canadian Grand Prix. Making a welcome return to the calendar after a year’s absence, the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is a challenging mix of long straights and tight hairpins that require a low downforce aero configuration, which should suit the VJM03 well.

Tonio, you’ve seemed a little frustrated with results in recent races. Why is this and what have you done to turn this around?
“The last few races have been pretty tough as we’ve been struggling with a general lack of grip that makes it hard for me to give the maximum. Monaco was OK and I thought we had solved the issues so it was quite frustrating in Turkey that I couldn’t make the most of our new development items. We’ve put in some long hours at the factory and found some minor damage on the chassis that we picked up in Monaco. We thought we had fixed it but as a precaution we are switching back to the chassis I used in the first four races. We’ll look at the chassis again back in the factory and see if we can find any other areas we need to address.”

What are your thoughts on going back to Canada?
“Overall I like the event and I’m pretty fast there, I’ve qualified in the top 12 before and I’ve had some exciting races. If the car behaves well I could be in good shape because I’ve been fast there in the past and we should have an advantage with the new aerodynamic improvements we are bringing to this race. Additionally, we have all the right items to be quick over one lap. We have a good straightline speed and good traction out of the tight corners so we are pretty optimistic that we will go well in Montreal.”

What do you think is possible from this race?
“I don’t think we lost as much ground to Renault in Turkey as it might have seemed and I think Adrian showed that we still have a top ten package over a full race distance. If I can get the grip I need I hope I’ll be back knocking on the door of Q3 and in the hunt for points. As we’ve seen before Canada is pretty unpredictable and if we are up at the front we could get some really decent points, hopefully another double points finish, which will be good for the team at this stage.”