Renault's Vitaly Petrov says testing a 'steep learning curve'
Petrov, 25, is satisfied with his and Renault's progress during the 15 days of winter testing
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Tuesday, 02, Mar 2010 11:27
By Adam Leveridge.
Renault's new signing Vitaly Petrov had described winter testing as a "steep learning curve" and admitted there is still a long way to go before he completely understands formula one.
Petrov, 25, makes his F1 debut with Renault in 2010 after finishing runner-up to Williams' new boy Nico Hulkenburg in last year's GP2 championship.
The Russian completed 68 laps of the Catalunya circuit on his final day in the Renault R30 on Saturday and, although he been unlucky in terms of the weather, he feels a lot has been accomplished over the past month.
"For me it has been a completely new experience and a steep learning curve," said Petrov.
"I've been working with the team for a month now and getting to know all the people and understanding how Renault works.
"I've also spent as much time as I can at the track and in the garage listening to all the discussions.
"Everyone has been really helpful and I've settled in very quickly, but I know there is still a lot to learn.
"In total I think I've had maybe two or three days of fully dry running, which is tough when you are a rookie as you need to learn how to set the car up in the dry.
"Of course I would like more days of testing, but there is no more time available and the weather has been the same for all the teams so there's no point complaining."
The Vyborg-born racer said the most challenging thing has been acclimatizing to size and scale of F1, following his stint in GP2, where everything is done with smaller headcounts and fewer resources.
He said: "You have 500 people around you in the team ready to help improve and develop the car so it's a totally different scale and rate of development to what I was used to."