Eric Boullier: I’ve found this season quite entertaining

Each of the last two races in Monaco and Montréal have sprung something of a surprise for Eric Boullier, and for highly contrasting reasons. Looking ahead to Valencia, the Team Principal assesses what it takes to be successful in a season of seemingly endless twists and turns…

Eric, Montréal must have been a relief after a tough weekend in Monaco…

Yes. To be honest, we knew the car was competitive but we were not expecting to finish so high up the order. Romain drove very well and, although we knew how good he was when we offered him a drive with the team, he keeps surprising us. He’s bloody fast.

In return, has Romain been surprised by anything this year?

You should ask him, but I’m sure he was not expecting such a long round of applause from the whole factory when he came to Enstone last week! Oh, and I think he was quite surprised too after the Canadian Grand Prix when his engineers told him that he had a substantial number of quick laps left in his tyres.

Will Valencia be a completely different challenge?

The tyres will be different, with the soft and medium compounds available. We’ll have to get used to these again. This said the track temperature should be high, the surface is more abrasive than Montréal, and there are also more corners per lap. All this could suit the E20 quite well.

How do you get involved in the technical matters over a race weekend?

As you know, my background is engineering. As a Team Principal, it helps me to understand the set-up of the cars. I can also sometimes make some suggestions, as I could have faced a similar problem or situation in the past. This said, I’m never stepping into conversations for no reason. We’ve got one of the strongest pools of engineers in the paddock and they know what they’re doing.

What’s the key to a strong performance this year?

If you want to perform, you need to get your weekend absolutely right. The slightest setback can have a very negative effect on your performance over the rest of the weekend. We saw it with Kimi in Monaco, when he skipped the first session because of a steering issue, and also in Montréal, with a hydraulic failure in qualifying. Some people say that Formula 1 has become a lottery, but I don’t agree. I’ve found this season quite entertaining and also very challenging from an engineering point of view.

How do you make sure that you can get your weekend absolutely right?

First of all, you need to prepare for every race as meticulously as possible. Nothing must be left to chance. We’ve come up with a very strong programme during free practice sessions which allows us to do our homework on the Friday without paying attention to what our opponents are doing. This said, there’s nothing we can do in case of a change of climatic conditions or technical failure.

After seven races, you probably have a good idea of the car’s strengths and weaknesses…

Yes, and they are plain to see for everybody. The E20 is very good with its tyres in races where the temperature is high, and it seems to be competitive on every single track layout. This said, we need to improve our qualifying pace and also the way the car performs when the temperature drops. We’ve got some ideas already. Some of them will be implemented in Valencia and we’ll see how it goes.