Tonio: We achieved the maximum we could get
With its tight corners Abu Dhabi was always going to be a challenge for the Force India team. It was a tough weekend for both drivers, and after starting 16th Tonio Liuzzi brought the car safely home in 15th in F1’s first ‘twilight’ race. We asked him for his thoughts on the season finale.
Q: After challenging for points in recent races was it a bit disappointing to be near the back in Abu Dhabi?
VL: “We knew that it would be difficult at these end of the season races because our car is a low drag car, so we thought maybe we would struggle at this kind of circuit. We were hoping got a good result in Abu Dhabi, but we were conscious that we would have a hard time as well!”
Q: So how did the race go for you?
“I think in the race we achieved the maximum we could. In qualifying we had a problem with one set of tyres, and without that maybe we could have got into Q2. But the race showed that our performance wasn’t there, and the maximum we could have achieved was this position. We didn’t have the pace, we had a lot of problems to stick the car to the ground. As usual we were really fast on the straights, because we have low drag, but in the last sector, with the tight corners, we were losing a lot of time. We were ready for this, but unfortunately we cannot change the track just for us!”
Q: Did you have any issues in the race?
“After six laps we had a problem with the brakes, the pedal was getting longer and we were struggling to stop the car in the corners with big braking, like Turn 6 and Turn 10.”
Q: You were quicker than Adrian in qualifying. Was that encouraging?
“For me it doesn’t count for much, it wasn’t my target. I knew that once I was getting back in the rhythm things would be OK. I was disappointed that in Suzuka and Interlagos we couldn’t achieve what we wanted in qualifying, and in Abu Dhabi as well. In Monza we showed that we were competitive and similar to Adrian, and the most important thing was to bring back some points for the team and for myself. I was not fighting to be ahead of Adrian, it’s about getting back into the rhythm.”
Q: And you were battling with him for a while in the race?
“It was not really a fight, I knew he was coming really fast, and he was on a different strategy. So I didn’t block at all, I just moved aside and let him by, because he was running at a different speed. There was no point to stop him, we are a team.”
Q: What did you think of the track?
“It’s an easy circuit. I don’t like all these tarmac run-off areas, like so many new circuits! At the end of the day it’s better than many others. It was a fun race, a fun circuit, it’s just somehow too easy because of all tarmac allows people to make mistakes and come back on the track!”