Formula One news

Positive Kolles looks back at opening round

The opening round in Australia was the first official Formula One race of the new Spyker F1 team. The team struggled in qualifying, but managed to show a steady race-pace on Sunday. Kolles looks back with a positive feeling on the first race of the 2007 Formula 1 season.

"We have a very positive feeling for the future," said Spyker F1 team boss Colin Kolles after the race. "Extremely positive, to be honest. Our problem is qualifying, and we're not getting temperature into the tyres, or at least on this track, so we were struggling for a competitive lap time on Saturday.

"But you just have to look at Adrian's times in the race and compare them to other cars and you'll see that he was quite competitive. We have an update coming, and hopefully it will help. In our simulations, in our wind tunnels, it looks pretty significant. We'll see how it is on track."

In his first Formula 1 race Adrian had a difficult time with the stewards in the race. He received a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags and another one for crossing the white line as he left the pitlane. "Thankfully he had it all in one race!" added Kolles, "He's a very intelligent boy, and he learns very quickly, so I think this is now history. Adrian showed a very strong race as a rookie. I won't say I was impressed or surprised by his weekend, because I know him, and this is what we expected. And we expect even more from him."

Christijan Albers meanwhile had a tough time. Unhappy with his balance after qualifying, he opted to switch to the T-car for the race and start it from the pitlane, which allowed him to start with a different set-up. He eventually slid off the road on lap 10. "Christijan had a tough weekend, but Christijan is a fighter, and he's also a fast racing driver. And he has to fight back. We made this decision to change cars because we had nothing to lose," said Kolles.

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