Robert Kubica: What do you think of the Istanbul Park circuit?
It’s certainly one of the best modern circuits with some nice corners, especially in the first sector of the lap. The final sector is a bit ‘mickey-mouse’ with some slow corners and is the complete opposite to the first sector, which means you have to make a compromise with the set-up. There’s also turn eight, which is quite a challenging corner and will be very interesting at the start of the race with a full tank of fuel.
Vitaly Petrov: Istanbul Park is generally a circuit that the drivers enjoy. Is it the same for you?
Yes, it’s a place that I like. You can overtake there, the circuit is wide and I enjoy the different kinds of corners – not just turn eight, but the rest of the lap too. To be honest, in GP2 turn eight was not so difficult but I will need to learn the circuit again in an F1 car. Like every race, my aim will be to do my maximum, and I’m pleased to be driving at a circuit I know well.
How important will it be to have a trouble-free weekend in Turkey?
Like I said, you have to be on top of everything in Formula 1, all through the weekend, if you want to get a good result. That means you’re always pushing hard. In Monaco, the gaps were really close, and I was pushing right to the limit to find the extra tenths of a second when I crashed in qualifying. For Turkey, I will be pushing hard again to do my best, but the target will be to put everything together and have a clean weekend.
What are your expectations for the weekend?
It’s hard to say; I think we will have to wait until Friday practice to see how the car is performing. In terms of qualifying, the target has to be to get in the top ten at least, and then we will see what happens on Sunday…
Robert Kubica’s guide to Istanbul Park
When I think about Turkey the first thing that comes to my mind is that it’s normally a very hot race. Also, the traffic is always busy, especially over that bridge which links Europe and Asia. That’s why I always try and stay in a hotel on the Asian side – that saves a lot of time and your nerves too!
Istanbul Park is one of the best of the modern tracks with a great first sector which has lots of long, smooth corners. The first corner is quite tricky because there is a blind apex and you begin to turn in before you can see the inside kerb. Then you go up the hill through turn two, which is a very long corner and on the opening lap of the race it’s quite exciting with a bit of action as the cars run alongside each other.
In the middle of the lap, you come to turn eight, which is a four apex corner taken at about 260 km/h. The biggest problem is not so much the line to take, but the bottoming of the car because there are a lot of bumps. With the current cars it’s nearly a flat-out corner, so it’s not really a big challenge, although it will be on the opening lap when the tyre pressures are quite low and the car is heavy on fuel. One thing you have to watch is the right front tyre, which is under a lot of stress and can grain quite a lot because of this corner.
After turn eight you go downhill on the approach to turns nine and ten, which make up a chicane that suddenly goes uphill. You can carry a lot of speed in, but if you’re not careful you can lose it on the exit because it’s very easy to run wide – as Vettel did last year on the first lap. Sometimes you have to change your line, especially if you’re racing someone, and you can sacrifice entry speed to try and get on the power early on the exit. It’s a strange corner and one I always give a lot of respect to because you never get the perfect balance through it.
The best chance to overtake is the last section of the lap into turn 12, which is after the long straight and heads into that ‘mickey-mouse’ section. You can run side-by-side, but you are always limited by traction and front-end grip. Unless someone makes a mistake it’s quite hard to get past.
As for the car set-up, it’s a compromise between the first and last sector of the lap. If you choose a high-speed set-up where you’re good aerodynamically for the first sector, you sacrifice mechanical grip so you lose that traction and braking stability, which is especially important in the final sector.
