The ABT driver was very pleased after achieving his personal best result of the season in Rome, a P6 scored maximising the pace of the car in a very tricky race packed with on track collision and retirements.
The Swiss driver definitely took advantage of the opportunity given to him after starting out of the top ten, and he discussed after the race the battle with Dennis and Vergne for P4:
“I think very close to the best possible result, for sure Jake was down on energy at the end there, so maybe it was possible to get that place in the end, but JEV did find a way by me, we were very similar on energy for the whole race.
“When two cars go side by side already and you’re the third one waiting for something to happen. Already this track is very narrow, but what’s even narrower is the line that is clean, so if you have to go off line you are kind of screwed.
“Because they were already going side by side that was my only option, to try to do an outside move somewhere, I tried two or three times but I’ve had no chances.”
In spite of what could have been, Muller is satisfied:“We did very well tho, not much to say. For us I think overall very positive, even thought we are always trying to optimise more.”
Photo Credits: ABT Motorsport
Asked if in his opinion Rome is an unsafe track to race on with the new generation of cars, Muller mentioned the fact that the specific section where today’s biggest shunt happened is rather risky as it leaves no room for error due to the tightness of the track:
“In the end we have to kind of judge and decide how much risk we take, but here the problem is if you go one percent over the limit, the consequences are huge in some places. Obviously we are talking about Turn 5 and 6, that’s where you have zero margin for error.”
There are other factors that can make racing at higher speeds around the Italian town worrisome, such as the bumpiness of the track and the manholes, which were already a talking point in the past:
“The track is bumpy, you have those manholes with covers that are sticking out of them. You just can’t put a wheel wrong there, otherwise it can end real badly. The problem is that competition is so high and tight, if you decide to just give two tenths away there you can also stay in the hotel because you are not going to achieve anything.
“I think here maybe we kind of start to not be on the right compromise between risk and reward in that section anymore, and I think we need to look what can be done in this section. I think the track itself overall is great, but there the combination of bumps and manholes is on the edge with these cars that arrive much quicker.”
Muller added that it’s definitely something that will have to be discussed with the FIA: “In Gen 2 that corner was flat, no problem, but now we are fighting the car all way up, and it’s tricky.”
Asked by Pit Debrief on his racing goals for tomorrow, Muller was hopeful while keeping both feet on the ground:
“Unfortunately, if you look at the statistics, double headers for us have not been so easy when it comes to Sunday, because people are making steps, getting sorted out.
“We are usually starting quite well our weekends, and as the track grips up, as people fine tune their systems, they usually manage to make bigger steps than us. I hope that we can revert that trend.”
“We have to be realistic, we still need some sort of special situation to arise to really be in the position to score a P6, but if from our own power we manage to fight for points again that will be great,” he concluded.
