Boullier is cautiously optimistic about Korea

What can you say after Suzuka?
Obviously, this did not meet our expectations. Of course, I could always argue that we have widened the gap on Mercedes in the championship, that Kimi remains third in the drivers' standings, that our pace in qualifying was very good? But in the end, we only scored 8 points. After the last free session on Saturday, we could count on a much better result. It would have been possible to reduce the gap with Ferrari and the opposite happened. This is not ideal.

What do you think of Romain?s accident in the first round?
When Romain returned after his suspension in Singapore, we saw that some drivers were putting extra pressure on him at the start. At Suzuka, Romain made a small mistake by misjudging his speed? a little higher – compared to that of Mark [Webber]. We sat and we talked. We understood what to do. I think in Singapore, to a certain extent and at Suzuka, he was almost trying to overcompensate by absolutely wanting to stay out of trouble, which had the opposite effect in the last race.

Kimi never seemed to be in rhythm…
That's right, the car didn't perform as well as we expected and it got worse as the race progressed. Starting seventh, we had higher hopes, but if the performance is not completely there, it doesn't work. We couldn't put everything together to make the race easier for him and gain more places.

What do you hope for from the developments planned for Korea?
Every time you introduce something new, you hope it works as expected. The developments for Korea represent a big step, the opening of a new era for us. We expect them to deliver results, but of course it's difficult to find the right settings for the car when you're trying new things at the same time. What happened with our ??DDRS?? shows that no improvement is a guarantee until you put it through its paces on the track. Let's say we're cautiously optimistic.

What is your opinion on the team?s championship potential?
I believe that the closer we get to the end of the season, the more difficult it will be to achieve big results. But we must stay united, focused on our work and make sure we collect even more points. We certainly feel less pressure than expected from our pursuers with a lead of 104 points over Mercedes. But it becomes more difficult to catch up with Ferrari which precedes us, in third position. With 14 points behind arriving at Suzuka and with six races to come, it was more possible than with 24 points and five races. What is clear is that we must place both our cars in the points. We also need to find more performance in the E20 so as not to have to swap colors with Ferrari but to be well ahead of them on the track.