Italian GP Practice

Posted on Friday 11 Sep 2009 and tagged with monza, italy, practice.

Objectives P1
•    Aero and mechanical set-up

Objectives P2
•    Performance evaluation of the tyres. Evaluation of aero and mechanical set-up

Conclusions – Patrick Head, Director of Engineering
“We’ve been doing our homework on the tyres today. Both tyres look pretty good and we’ve gathered a lot of data today to go through to optimise our set-up for qualifying tomorrow.”

Nico Rosberg
Runs P1: Run 1 new primes (2 laps) install, run 2 new primes (10 laps) baseline, run 3 scrubbed prime (9 laps) mechanical set-up, run 4 scrubbed prime (8 laps) aero level
Runs P2: Run 1 scrubbed primes (6 laps) baseline, run 2 new prime (10 laps) tyre test, run 3 new option (10 laps) tyre test, run 4 new option (6 laps) mechanical test, run 5 scrubbed options (6 laps) aero level

“The most important job today is to find the compromise between top speed and grip and it’s not easy to arrive at the optimum downforce level. We were very slow on the straights this morning, so we looked at this and we have found a good solution. Tyres are just as important and we have completed a good test, from my point of view the direction is pretty clear. The rest of our running time was focused on aerodynamics and we found some good direction, but despite doing some good homework, it is going to be difficult for us here and it won’t be an easy weekend. To repeat the Spa performance of making into the top ten in qualifying will require a helluva lap, but that’s not to say we can’t pull it out of the bag!”

Kazuki Nakajima
Runs P1: Run 1 new primes (2 laps) install, run 2 scrubbed prime (10 laps) baseline, run 3 scrubbed prime (9 laps) mechanical set-up, run 4 scrubbed prime (7 laps) aero level
Runs P2: Run 1 new prime (7 laps) baseline new tyres, run 2 scrubbed prime (6 laps) aero level, run 3 new option (12 laps) new tyres, run 4 new option (6 laps) mechanical test, run 5 scrubbed option (5 laps) mechanical test

“Although we are not expecting much here, today didn’t go too badly. Certainly compared to Spa, I think I will be more competitive here, although it is perhaps too early to say how we will go in qualifying. We worked hard today and tried many different technical options, but importantly found some positive direction, so I think the main priority to is maintain this progress tomorrow.”