With the on-track action set to kick off tomorrow morning at the Circuit de Catalunya, we caught up with Kimi and Romain to grab a few words over some coffee before the serious business begins

KIMI – YOU’RE A TWO-TIME WINNER HERE, BOTH FROM POLE POSITION. DO YOU THINK A THIRD SPANISH GRAND PRIX VICTORY IS POSSIBLE THIS WEEKEND? YOU’VE SAID YOU TEAM WILL BE WINNERS AT SOME STAGE…

KR: The rules are different to a few years ago, and you don’t necessarily have to be on pole to win. We’ll try, but I can’t predict what will happen; it’s very difficult to say before the weekend starts. The teams are very close, so if everything goes smoothly then we can be right up there, but small difficulties in any area and you’re suddenly much further back. We will know for sure on Sunday. If we’re top that’s great; if we’re not then there’s still work to do. I think we have a good package and we have a good chance this weekend.

ROMAIN – HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE PROGRESSED AS A DRIVER THESE PAST FEW MONTHS?

RG: The more racing I do the more I progress. There is still room for improvement, but racing among top drivers helps me to learn and to develop. Formula 1 is very challenging, and sometimes we don’t have much time to get everything right. It’s rare to have a perfect qualifying session, a perfect race start, a perfect first lap and then a perfect race… that’s why I work on continuing to progress and become a better driver.

BOTH – BARCELONA IS THE FIRST EUROPEAN RACE OF THE SEASON – ARE YOU PLEASED TO BE BACK?

KR: I prefer racing in Europe, but I arrived in China on the Thursday morning so arriving for a European race on the Thursday morning is no different really.

RG: It’s good to be back in Europe. I’ve seen a lot of people I know, my old colleagues from GP2 for example, and there are a lot of media attending this first European race. It’s also great to see the many Spanish fans. We’re looking forward to the weekend here and hopefully it will be a good race.

KIMI – YOU DIDN’T TEST AT MUGELLO AS APPARENTLY THE TEAM HADN’T BROUGHT MAJOR MODIFICATIONS, BUT FOR THIS RACE THERE ARE A NUMBER OF UPGRADES; DO YOU THINK THE E20 CAN MAINTAIN THE SAME LEVEL SHOWN IN THE OPENING ROUNDS?

KR: The team is happy with what they achieved in Mugello and I didn’t need to be there. There were some question marks in certain areas of the car and the test allowed the team to sort these areas out so it was worthwhile. We’ll see how much of a step forward we have made once we take to the track here in Barcelona.

ROMAIN – ARE YOU HOPING FOR THE WEATHER TO STAY SUNNY AND WARM LIKE IT IS RIGHT NOW IN BARCELONA FOR THE RACE?

RG: There’s nothing we can do to impact on the weather! If it’s raining we’ll have the wet weather tyres on the car but I think that broadly speaking everybody prefers sunny weather – even the fans that come to watch the races. We’ve seen that the E20 works well in more suitable conditions like what we have right now and I hope that it stays the same. If it rains, then it rains. The car’s not bad in those conditions either!