Vitaly - Ready For Istanbul

As the first of the European races fast approaches, Vitaly used his time at the official FIA Thursday Press Conference to explain how LRGP is looking to compete right amongst the Ferraris and McLarens at the Istanbul Park Circuit.

It has been suggested that the team hasn't been running to its full potential up until now. Do you feel you've found the full potential in the break that we've had since China?

We've brought some new parts here, some new upgrades and we hope to fight with the Ferraris and McLarens. This track's not easy but this is why we are here – to put the pressure on and to be in front, so let's wait to see what happens this weekend.

Do you think you can make the jump to compete alongside Ferrari and McLaren?

That's a difficult question, but with this weather we have now anything is possible because when the rain comes it is completely different. McLaren and Red Bull are still quite far away, but Ferrari are not so far. So we need to just stay focused and do our job.

This year it appears that there's much more focus on strategy – even if you have the fastest car you may not finish first?

It is clear Red Bull has had the fastest car so far but you can see from the last race (in China) how McLaren destroyed the others with the tactics. For example, last year we would spend 20 minutes discussing what to do and what strategy to use, this year we spend longer. So, there is much more concentration on the strategy. I think this year it's much more exciting, there's more thinking to be done, deciding on whether to come in (to the pits). This is how it is, but it's definitely more exciting.