Formula 1 News

2010 British GP, practice: Team quotes 

James Key: “It was a fairly busy day. In the beginning the track was quite slippery, and therefore we did not get much work done in the first session. The new lay out of the circuit looks quite good, but there is also a significant difference in grip level between the old and the new part. The problem on Kamui’s car, which occurred at the very end of the first session, initially appeared to be engine related. Now it looks like it was an electronic issue, which we only found at the beginning of the second session. However, our main target is now to find the right balance for low and high speed consistency.”

Laurent Mekies: “Our main objective today was to complete as many laps as possible to learn the new track layout, which is presenting everyone with an interesting and enjoyable challenge in terms of car set-up. We had a trouble free day and tried various set-ups on both cars, so now we have to look at the data from both cars and come up with the best solution in order to make the most of tomorrow. Looking at the lap times, it is clear that the field is more spaced out than in Valencia which highlights the fact this is a more demanding circuit that shows up the strengths and weaknesses of the various team packages.”

Colin Kolles: “We are quite happy with our performance today. Everything worked well and with the small technical changes we could improve our cars. Both of our drivers, Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto, could do many laps in the practice sessions. Sakon showed a good performance as well even tough not being in a Formula 1 car for many years. It was the first time for him to drive on the option tyres and it was not easy for him to improve his lap times on this tyre. But now he knows how the tyres are working and he is prepared for the next sessions.”

Alan Permane: “Today was quite a challenging day, but I think we can be fairly happy with the work we have completed with both cars. We had a productive morning and changed a few things on the cars over lunch, but it was much hotter and windier in the afternoon and we didn’t find the improvements we expected. The new part of the lap is particularly slippery and the windy conditions were blowing the dust about, which is why the track wasn’t really cleaning up as we would normally expect. The new tarmac also seems pretty bumpy, so we’ve been playing a lot more with the ride heights, especially raising the front to improve the car’s handling. We brought another front wing development, but it does not seem as suited to the high-speed corners here as we would have hoped. It was an improvement in the low-speed sections, but not overall lap time.”

Nick Wirth: “A fascinating and encouraging day. We did a series of aero tests today that have proved conclusively that we’ve made the expected step forwards in downforce which is consistent with our digital aero process. In fact the step is so significant that it caused a number of set-up issues that we’re trying to address. Lucas had a steady and productive day, with the set-up direction evolving as he’d found on the simulators this week, which is great news. Timo had a tricky Friday, starting with a fuel leak caused by a pinched O-ring delaying his start, and a lengthy set-up change taking up some valuable track time later on. Unfortunately he had an off prior to trying the option tyres which broke his new front wing and our spare wing hadn’t quite made it to the track in time for him to use. Nevertheless we have the spare now and we’ll look to improve the set-up again overnight.”

Stefano Domenicali: “We had a good day, especially as we were able to complete a very intensive work programme. With in-season testing banned, Fridays take on a dual function – preparing the cars for qualifying and the race and the development of new solutions for the short and medium term – and today we completed both phases. From what we have seen today, we have a very strong Red Bull, which is definitely no surprise, while the rest are closely matched behind, with some who might have masked their potential. We have to remain concentrated on our own work, trying to get as well prepared as possible for qualifying and especially for the race. Today, we saw several cars go off track, a sign that the slightest error can be costly at this circuit: everything will have to be perfect if we want to bring home a good result.”

Chris Dyer: “We are pleased with how things went on this first day of the British Grand Prix. We had a very packed work schedule and we managed to get through it all successfully. The indications we are getting from the new components we introduced here and at the last race seem to be positive. The overall performance of the package we have here is reasonably good: we still have a bit of work to do to fine tune the car, especially for qualifying, but overall, we have a good starting point from which to continue working this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Over a long run we seem to be competitive, which is a good sign for the race. Both drivers tried the car with and without the blown rear wing, because we wanted to be sure that overall, its use would pay off at a track like this: and the response to this configuration was a positive one.”

Dominic Harlow: “A solid start to our home grand prix weekend with just one or two issues. During the morning session the circuit took a while to improve, but Paul and Adrian gained familiarity with the new layout and we were pleased that our simulations prior to this weekend correlated well with what we found at the circuit. In FP2 Tonio and Adrian continued to look at the tyres and evaluate some setup options. The circuit was quite hot today, and the afternoon was more breezy than the morning, it’s close as usual, but I’m sure we can improve the car further overnight and for qualifying.”

Ross Brawn: “We’ve had a positive day but then we have had good Fridays before. The car is not too bad and the refinements that we have made to our updates seemed to have solved the temperature issues that we faced in Valencia. This is really a consolidation weekend for us where our focus is on the basics of tyres, fuel and set-up. Nico and Michael were reasonably happy today and our pace on high fuel looked good. It was tricky this afternoon with the gusty wind making it a bit edgy for the drivers and giving variable data but we have a lot of information to look at this evening. Silverstone is a great venue and it’s nice to be at a race which our staff can attend and enjoy.”

Norbert Haug: “We did a lot of laps today and learned a lot about the new layout of the Silverstone circuit. Our lap times with heavy fuel loads did not look too bad and we certainly can improve further. It will be important to get a reasonable position on the grid tomorrow to provide a good base for the race on Sunday.”

Mike Gascoyne: “It’s great to be back at Silverstone, but it was a difficult first day at the office for us. We had Fairuz driving for the first session and unfortunately, just before the session started, we had an airbox fire which meant we had to change the engine. This obviously limited his running but when we were able to get him out for the second half of the session, he once again did a great job, taking the car through all the engine tests, so thanks to him. With Jarno, we’d had to change the gearbox between the sessions, but unfortunately a bearing failure that we were unable to fix brought his session to an early end, so apologies to him for that. We’ll work hard to put it right tomorrow. Heikki ran through his whole programme without any real problems, but he had to stop at the end of the session with a hydraulics problem. We could see from his times that, performance-wise, we’re looking good – we’ve just got to make sure we run reliably through the next couple of days.”

Martin Whitmarsh: “We have a new package for Silverstone, and as is often the case with new packages we’ve had to work hard to make it work today. As a result, the drivers haven’t got really comfortable with it yet. But, just as our engineers and mechanics worked really hard last night – they were still hard at it well after midnight and a batch of parts arrived at 1.30am – so also they’ll work really hard tonight. To be honest, I find their commitment truly inspirational. I also find Silverstone truly inspirational. Its ‘camp-site’ atmosphere is incredibly refreshing – unique in fact – and as you drive in to the circuit every morning you can somehow sense the heritage in everything you see and hear, and you can definitely feel the enthusiasm of the crowd, numerous already before breakfast time. It’s a truly special place.”

Sam Michael: “We’ve had a good day evaluating set-up and tyres, as well as testing the new parts that we’ve brought here. The upgrades all worked as expected, including the exhaust blown diffuser, so we will be keeping that on both cars for the rest of the weekend. Nico’s car had a gearbox oil leak between sessions which cost him some time at the start of the second practice session.”