We are working on how to take the relationship forward. The attempt is to see whether Mahindra's joint venture with Renault could be the distribution channel for all of Renault products in India... We are talking to Renault very seriously right now
but my final run in Q2 just wasn't enough to get me through. Seventh on the grid was Mark Webber in his Renault-engined Red Bull. It was a stress to get into Q3 ... It was very tight as usual and all the drivers were pretty evenly matched so you had to find that extra few tenths to get into the final group. We’ll see how tomorrow goes with the strategy, we’re in a reasonable position to mount an attack for some points.
In the early laps the track conditions were very difficult, but the rain eased-up after a while ... Salvador has given me his trophy from last weekend, and I need to continue and develop on this success over the final races. I know the Le Mans circuit from Formula Renault 2.0, and with Estoril and Barcelona coming up (where Molina won in 2007) I hope my end of the season will prove to be as good as last year's.
The Indian automobile industry today is all about scale. Maruti hopes to have a capacity of 1 million cars by 2010; Hyundai is looking at 600,000 cars in another year; Toyota is talking about 200,000 cars by year end; the Nissan Renault venture is planning a capacity of 400,000 cars. GM and Honda are setting up new plants, as is Tata for its Nano.
Renault is set to unveil its investment project globally which naturally includes its production plan in the Chinese market
The next few circuits, in particular Spa, should play to the strengths of the RB4 package, so it is extremely important that we reverse this trend and get back on terms with Renault and close the gap to Toyota.
Things are a lot more expensive ... Gas is up, electricity is up, fuel for the car is up. We are going to have to make some real changes in our lifestyle. I have traded in a two-litre Peugeot for a 1.5-litre Renault, we have started to pick and choose bargains in the shops, going to Aldi as well as Asda. Last year we got away to the Dominican Republic for a fortnight. That won't happen this year.
In emerging countries where Formula 1 serves as a locomotive for our brand's image and reputation ... the aim of Renault Sport Technologies is to showcase the tie that exists between motor sport and the brand's ability to propose high performance motor cars.
His options at Renault are dependent on certain results that have not been achieved, and everyone knows that. When Fernando makes his decision on what he wants to do then a lot of things will slot into place.