Has Kimi filled the gap left by Robert Kubica at the team?
It’s early days. What we can say is that he has fitted in extremely well. One area where he is incredibly strong is his consistency on long runs. You can tell from that how good the driver is going to be, not just from outright pace but how he holds that pace. Often you see drivers do a fast lap, a slow lap and make mistakes on long runs, but not Kimi.
So you need leadership from Kimi?
Drivers don’t lead the team. He doesn’t need to stand on a pedestal and tell us how to do our jobs. The sense
of confidence is where the leadership comes from and he will get that respect and trust because we can see that he knows what he’s doing.
He doesn’t have a great reputation technically, but it seems that you’ve not seen any weakness in that area... His feedback is excellent. His knowledge of different engine maps and differential maps is excellent. I see no reason to say that he isn’t a good development driver.
So you are completely confident that the speed is there?
I was reasonably comfortable with that after the Valencia test [in a 2010 Renault] but it was difficult to gauge.
Kimi and the new car is a strong package.
Does he stand comparison with other great drivers you’ve worked with such as Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica?
I felt that from when he first ran. You can see that he’s an exceptional driver. For example, when we go from low fuel to high fuel, we calculate what we believe the laptime difference should be and every time
he hits it on his first lap. A lesser driver takes time to feel that.