Vitaly Petrov is just one of the new rookie racers on the grid for the upcoming 2010 Formula One championship but the young Renault racer is luckier than some of his fellow rookies. Unlike the two HRT runners, Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, Vitaly has at least had some time behind the wheel of the car he will race this season, even if a lot of it was under wet conditions.

Speaking to the team’s official website, Formula One’s only Russian racer speaks about recent testing, his thoughts on the car and his new teammate Robert Kubica...

Vitaly, sum up your first winter of testing with the Renault F1 Team…
For me it has been a completely new experience and a steep learning curve. 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.

What has surprised you most about Formula One over the last few weeks?
The most difficult thing is to fully understand how Formula One works from the inside as it’s completely different to GP2. 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.

You’ve been unlucky with the weather so far…
That’s true. It was particularly bad in Jerez and we also had more rain yesterday in Barcelona. 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.

How have you found working with Robert Kubica so far during testing?
We get on well and we’ve been to all the debriefs together and often discuss things about the car at the end of each day. As a racing driver your first target is always to beat your teammate, but Robert has a lot of experience and I know I can learn from him. When we start racing my aim is to be as close to him as possible.