Red Bull Racing F1 - 2008 starts tomorrow

"I thought we might get into the points today, but unfortunately I didn't have enough pace relative to the cars in front.

I came together with Nakijama towards the end of the race, which knocked my front suspension out and the car was moving strangely around left-handers for the last ten laps. We just weren't quick enough today.

"I would like to thank every member of the team, both race and test and everyone based at the factory, for all their efforts this year. As difficult as this season was, it's only going to get more difficult as we move forwards - but I'm up for the challenge and I'm sure they are too."

"I had a good start and our pace was not too bad - I hoped to get some good points, but then something failed on the car. It's pretty unbelievable really.

The guys saw a disconnect between the engine and the gearbox, which is another new issue by the looks of it, but it's early days and we need to investigate it further to see exactly what happened. We were on for some good points, so it's a real shame."

"It was a promising start from Mark and obviously it's disappointing for him to retire reasonably early in the race with a transmission failure. With David, we struggled a little with some graining on his tyres.

We rolled the dice and adjusted his strategy when it was obvious that he couldn't pass the cars ahead, and decided to fuel him to the finish. He then had a knock with Nakijama, which cost him a considerable amount of time. It's frustrating to have started in such strong grid positions, but to come away ultimately with nothing.

"I think the whole team's worked incredibly hard this year and we've seen some very positive signs in the car's performance over the last quarter of the season. However, the transmission train has let us down too many times this year, so we need to go away, do our homework over the winter, build on the momentum from the last few races and make sure that we carry that in to 2008."

FABRICE LOM, Renault Principal Engineer, Track Support: "Mark had a strong start, which was quite promising for the rest of the race, but he finally had to retire owing to a transmission problem. David, on the other hand, kept his position throughout the race. Williams were stronger this weekend and I'd like to congratulate them.

We are disappointed of course, but it was a great and promising season with our partner Red Bull Racing and we are now looking forward to the next one!"

- Britta Roeske -