Looking For a Comfortable Seat

Robert Kubica surveys the grid ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Kubica has said he will be deciding on his future very soon, but he needs to wait and see what happens at the Renault hearing first. The French team have offered him a place in the team, although he is also linked with Williams.

Credit: BMW AG

BMW Sauber F1 Team – Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice

Monza (IT). The BMW Sauber F1 Team enjoyed a reasonable start to the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Both drivers made good progress during the two 90 minute practice sessions on Friday.

The F1.09 has a modified front wing and a special rear wing to lower the drag for the high speed Monza circuit.

Robert Kubica:

BMW Sauber F1.09-08 / BMW P86/9

1st Free Practice: 11th, 1:24.813 min / 2nd Free Practice: 5th, 1:24.622 min

“We lost quite a lot of time in the morning session due to a problem with the brakes. Fortunately we were able to change the brakes in time and I completed a baseline run at the end of the session. In the afternoon we worked on the set-up of the car and tried to evaluate the tyres.”

Nick Heidfeld:

BMW Sauber F1.09-07 / BMW P86/9

1st Free Practice: 5th, 1:24.683 min / 2nd Free Practice: 7th, 1:24.693 min

“The lap times are not bad, especially when you take into account I did my fastest lap in the second session quite early on and even had some traffic. The car’s balance is better than it has been on some other Fridays, but there is still room for improvement. It is challenging to get the balance right for both qualifying and the race. We did the usual tyre evaluation and compared the softer and the harder compounds on long runs. The height of the new kerbs changes the circuit quite a lot, you have to get used to it and look where you can still go over them and which ones you better avoid. At the end of the second session I pitted a few minutes early after I went straight on at the Ascari chicane and wanted to have the car checked.”

Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering):

“Monza is the only track where we run the low downforce package, therefore we invested quite some time in the morning to find a baseline for the set-up of the car. On the one hand it’s crucial here not to lose too much time riding the kerbs, while on the other hand braking stability is even more important here than on other tracks. In the afternoon we concentrated fully on race preparation and on the tyre comparisons. We are quite happy with the results on low fuel, however, with higher fuel loads we still have some work to do.”

Toyota – Italian Grand Prix Debrief – Q+A with Jarno Trulli

Did the Italian Grand Prix weekend go as expected for you?
In the end it was the kind of tough weekend we were expecting. We knew our car was not particularly suited to Monza so we didn’t expect to repeat our form in Spa, when I was on the front row of the grid. Obviously it was disappointing not to score points because that was our target and if things had gone differently that was possible.

How was your qualifying lap?
I was really happy with my lap in second qualifying; it was very good. We knew it would be very difficult to make it into the top 10 and I was really, really close to doing that. The car felt pretty good and I preferred the medium compound tyres over one lap. I did my fastest lap of all on those and then had a stint on the soft tyres at the end of the session. It just wasn’t possible to do the same lap time and we didn’t quite have the speed to make it into the top 10, unfortunately.

How did you find the new kerbs at the chicanes?
They are a good compromise because the situation is clearer now and having higher kerbs means you can’t really jump over them. They force you to drive around the whole corner which is fine because then it is clear for everyone. The only downside is that if you do have a problem, or you run wide, the kerbs are more extreme so there is a greater chance of damaging the car. But I’m happy with the changes.

The first corner of the race was quite hectic; what did it look like from your point of view?
The first corner is always really tight at Monza and that happened again this year. Quite often you have an incident at the chicane because there are a lot of cars fighting for very little space but everyone made it through safely this time. In the midfield it is particularly close and I lost a position; from then on I was stuck in traffic.

How did the traffic affect your race?
For most of the race I was behind Kazuki Nakajima but I felt I was faster than him. It wasn’t enough to overtake though so I lost quite a bit of time and that cost me any chance to fight for the points. Nick Heidfeld started from behind me on the grid and he finished in the points so that shows it was possible if things had turned out differently.

What happened with Kazuki at the first chicane late in the race?
We were getting towards the end of the race and it was pretty dull for me to be honest. I decided I had nothing to lose so if I saw any gap I would take it and I pushed really hard on the previous lap to close up. Then under braking at the end of the start-finish straight I saw a chance and just went for it. I braked really, really late and got up the inside; it almost worked but I just ran out of room and hit the kerbs. It was a pity but at least I had a go and it created a bit of excitement.

What about your battles with Timo?
I had two little fights with Timo, which were great fun. The first was when he came out of the pits directly next to me and we went into the first chicane together. We are team-mates so we were both very careful to avoid each other but that didn’t stop us having a little battle and I got ahead. Then later, after the incident with Nakajima, we had another fight. After I hit the kerbs I rejoined just in front of Timo and we were battling for position going to the Lesmo corners; I was on the outside so I had a disadvantage but I kept attacking. I just ran out of track so went across the gravel and lost a couple of places. We were fighting hard and fair. Neither of us had much to lose as it doesn’t make much difference if you are 11th or 14th so it was good to entertain the fans a bit. I think the guys in the team enjoyed it too.

What are your hopes for the next race, in Singapore?
Naturally I hope for a better result and our target will be to get back in the points. We were strong in Singapore last year and I would have been close to the podium if I had not had a technical problem. Still, Timo was in the top six so we had a good result. If anything, the field is even closer this year so it’s harder to predict than ever but we will have some new parts on the car and I will be aiming for a strong result.

Williams – Italian Grand Prix Review

SYNOPSIS
The low drag problem bedevilled the AT&T Williams team again in Monza this weekend. The team anticipated a difficult weekend a fortnight earlier and spent the intervening period since first practice at Spa earlier in the month working on aerodynamic revisions in the wind tunnel and testing the changes at an aero test day before the Monza meeting. However, it proved insufficient to provide the team with enough pace to claim reasonable grid positions, and the race outcome was compromised by Saturday’s qualifying result.

It was hoped that sufficient performance could be found to progress into Q2 on Saturday and in the event both drivers missed the cut narrowly, but without this margin, the only solution was a long fuel one stop strategy, exposing both Kazuki and Nico to the possibility of involvement in a turn one incident off the line.

Although both drivers made strong starts in spite of running at over 700kgs, Nico moving up to P14 and Kazuki P15, contact with both cars saw Nico lose aerodynamic balance as debris became lodged on his car and a tangle with one of the Renaults damaged his front right wheel. For his part, Kazuki suffered damage to his rear wing endplate, and further into the race, was hampered by a fuel pressure problem. However, Nico’s problems were more immediate; he boxed for a suspected puncture on lap 4, but the tyre was found to be at normal operating pressure when checked after the stop and it was surmised that the debris that had become lodged in his car had seen an aero loss that unbalanced the car and felt as if a tyre was losing pressure. His problems were compounded by the damage to the right front wheel which meant the wheel change in the stop was problematic.

Meanwhile, team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, having passed both Toyotas, fought strongly to hold his position despite his fuel pressure problem. He ran his strategy to schedule and was rewarded with a seven place gain on his start position, but even this progression saw him unable to claim his first points of the season. The team is now finalising a car upgrade in time for a return to a circuit configuration that will suit the FW31 for the Singapore Grand Prix in two weeks time.

Q&A WITH ROD NELSON, CHIEF OPERATIONS ENGINEER

Q: Monza turned out to be the team’s least competitive showing of the year. Why was this?
A: The majority of circuits throughout the season are considered to be high downforce tracks. Spa is a medium downforce track due to its combination of long straights and high speed corners while, with its long straights and mainly low speed corners, Monza is the only low downforce circuit on the calendar. We therefore consider that our resources are better placed concentrating on aero development for the higher downforce tracks. It is also one of the circuits where KERS can give a significant advantage and we do not have our KERS online at present.

Q: Did Nico and Kazuki have similar handling issues at Monza?
A: The two drivers were quite evenly matched throughout the weekend and had similar issues with their car. The low downforce levels that you have to run at Monza presented us with ride and braking problems, but that is normal. Overall, they were both reasonably satisfied with the compromises that we had to make with chassis set-up.

Q: Were there any tyre-related problems during the course of the weekend?
A: As is usually the case at Monza, the tyres have quite a hard time mainly due to the sustained lateral acceleration in Parabolica. Most people tend to go for a one stop race as it’s the fastest strategy which means the tyres run for a longer period than usual and on heavier fuel loads. Having said that, however, we didn’t have any major issues with our tyres this weekend.

Q: Kazuki out qualified Nico for the third time this year. Please sum up his performance at Monza.
A: Kazuki went to Monza very well prepared. In fact, he underperformed during his second run in Q1 because of traffic and just missed out on Q2 by six hundredths of a second. He had a reasonable start and managed to get past both Grosjean and Glock on the first lap, followed by Trulli on the second lap. Despite some robust challenges, he held position and did a good job in the race.

Q: Nico made an unscheduled pitstop on lap four of the race. Why was this?
A: One of Kazuki’s rear wing endplates was damaged by another car on the first lap of the race and the broken piece was left on the track in Turn 3. Ironically, another driver ahead of Nico drove over the debris a few laps later. It flicked up and became stuck in Nico’s front wing and that cost him a lot of downforce. Nico thought the problem was a puncture so he pitted to change tyres.

Q: We go to Singapore next. How do you expect the FW31 to perform there?
A: I am hopeful that we will be back up there again. We’ll have some new aero upgrade parts on the cars and we hope we will be back scoring points on a regular basis for the last four races of the year.

Low Down with Low Downforce

Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima steer their FW31 round the circuit at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix this weekend. The team had a rather nondescript weekend, which sounds about right for their season as well. Rod Nelson suggests a lack of budget, no KERS and an incorrect downforce package for their poor results.

Credit: Lorenzo Bellanca/LAT Photographic

13-Sep-09: Brawn Take 1-2 Victory at Monza

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Welcome to F1 Minute for the 13th September 2009.

It was a Brawn 1-2 today, as Barrichello led the team to a beautiful victory, brought about by one-stopping whilst pole-sitter Hamilton chose a two stop strategy. Barrichello and Button were joined on the podium by Raikkonen, who overtook Sutil at the start, but was hustled by the Force India for the majority of the race. Hamilton had been running third until the last lap, when he spun off and into the barrier. It was quite a heavy impact, but he was okay, if a little disappointed.

Webber was out on the first lap, having made contact with Kubica. The BMW was shown the black and orange flag and had to return to the pitlane, but he was out a few laps later anyway. The other retirees included Alguersuari and Liuzzi, whilst Buemi was classified although he did retire on the last lap.

Both championships appear to be in Brawn’s grasp now, the question is which driver can nail it in the last few races.

That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

Williams – Italian Grand Prix – Race

The AT&T Williams team compromised start towards the rear of the grid for the Italian GP today presented limited opportunities and indeed plenty of potential threats. In the event, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg made contact in the early stages of the race, resulting in damage to the bodywork of Kazuki’s car, the debris from which became lodged in his team-mate’s FW31. Nico Rosberg as a consequence made two unscheduled stops, the first for a suspected puncture which in fact transpired to be an aerodynamic problem caused by debris, and the second due to damage sustained to the front right wheel which required a precautionary check to ensure the wheel nut locking mechanism had engaged properly. The time loss relegated Nico to a P16 finish, while Kazuki Nakajima, despite carrying an additional technical problem, managed to climb up the order to finish in the top ten.

Kazuki Nakajima:
We finished in a good position today considering our qualifying performance. I managed to gain a couple of positions in the first few corners and that made a big difference. The race pace wasn’t enough but we managed to have a good couple of laps and I think it was positive to keep Glock behind me even though he was going longer than me. I think we need to find more speed from the car but Singapore should be a good race for us.

Nico Rosberg:
This was a bad weekend for the team. To begin with, we have lacked pace since the start of practice, and we then had a number of issues in the race too. I had a good first lap and I made up four positions overtaking on the left and the right. Then I was hit on the front left by some debris and the car felt suddenly very different, with lots of understeer, so I assumed I had punctured my tyre and requested to pit. In fact the aero balance had been massively compromised and destroyed the grip, and this was just the beginning of a difficult afternoon. Today is one to put behind us, I think, and look ahead to next race where we should be fine.

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering:
Kazuki did a good day’s work today, starting in 17th and finishing in tenth, especially as he not only had bodywork damage but was also suffered a fuel pressure problem, losing him a little top end power. Nico had several problems today causing a number of unscheduled pit stops. Although Kazuki drove well, it is not lost on us that we are too far from the points and where we want to be.

Force India – Points and 4th – Adrian in Monza

Adrian Sutil has secured another points finish for the Force India Formula One Team in today’s Italian Grand Prix. The 26-year-old German finished in a fighting fourth position, under half a second from the podium, marking his highest finish to date and his first points since the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. To compound this success Adrian also posted the fastest lap of the race.

Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM02/01)

4th +31.131secs

Tonio Liuzzi (car 21, VJM02/04)

DNF Lap 22 Mechanical

Tonio Liuzzi, making his Force India race debut this weekend, was running in sixth position at the start of the race, however his race was cut short when his car developed a driveshaft problem.

Adrian’s five points bring Force India’s total to 13 overall, just seven points from BMW and Renault.

Adrian Sutil (car 20)

It was a great race and the car was performing really well. At the start we knew it would be really difficult to defend our position against Kimi and his KERS button and then I was stuck behind him the whole race. I was really quick but I just couldn’t find a way past him as the KERS had such a big effect on the circuit. Going into my second stop we had a chance to overtake him in the pit lane and I was pushing really hard but I was a bit late on the brakes into the box. I think I have to say sorry to the mechanics for going a bit wide! But still they did a great job there. The race pace overall was very good but finally the one-stop strategy worked better than the two stop. All the same we scored a lot of points and I am really, really happy for myself and all of the team at the track and back in the factory and wind tunnel.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 21)

Finally, I am racing again and I gave it 100%. We didn’t make any mistakes and everything was perfect until we were in a great position, but that’s racing unfortunately. I had an unusual problem,the transmission started making a strange noise and then I lost drive and couldn’t push. That’s racing it was just a shame as we didn’t have a reliability problem until now, but that’s how it is. We won’t give up though until the end of the season, we want to get lots of points and I am sure we will make it.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal

It’s been another great weekend for Force India. We thought the podium would be a dream here going into the weekend and at the end of the race we were less than half a second away. Adrian drove a fantastic race and richly deserved those points. Tonio too almost had a perfect start to his Force India race career, but unfortunately we couldn’t give him the reliability he deserved. Nevetheless he has marked himself out as a real star and I am sure that he will get his own points opportunities further down the line. We can go to Singapore on a real high now. We know the car is good and with more to come development-wise for this race we can be very confident of continuing this form.

Brawn GP – 2009 Italian Grand Prix – Race

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza this afternoon to score his second victory of the season and his eleventh Formula One win. Team-mate Jenson Button came home in second position in his Brawn-Mercedes car to complete a fantastic weekend which sees the team’s eighth victory and fourth one-two finish of the 2009 season.

After a strong qualifying performance on Saturday, Rubens and Jenson began the race from fifth and sixth positions respectively with heavy fuel loads for a one-stop strategy. Rubens started on the harder prime tyre with Jenson favouring the softer option. Both drivers had excellent first laps to pass Heikki Kovalainen and get into position behind the two-stopping cars ahead of them.

With aggressive lap times, the pair were able to maintain the gap to the front-runners prior to their pit stops, on lap 28 for Jenson and lap 29 for Rubens, before jumping the three two-stopping cars at their second stops. Rubens crossed the line after 53 laps to take the flag just over 2.8 seconds ahead of Jenson.

Brawn GP leads the Constructors’ Championship with 146 points, 40.5 points ahead of second place, with Jenson leading the Drivers’ Championship with 80 points and Rubens in second place with 66 points.

RESULTS

Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Race Result / Fastest Lap
Rubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-03 P1 01:24.967
Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 P2 01:24.935

Weather Hot and sunny
Temperatures Air: 26-28°C Track: 37-41°C

RUBENS BARRICHELLO
“Monza has always been a great track for me and it feels just wonderful to win here again. We made some great decisions this weekend and the work that we achieved on Friday was the key to setting up the result today. We had to think strategically in qualifying because of the KERS cars and our one-stop strategy really paid off. I had a great start to get ahead of Heikki and from there I had the pace that we needed to beat the two-stopping cars who started ahead of us. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at the factory, here at the track and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth for designing, building and developing such a great car and engine. I’m driving a fantastic car with a fantastic Mercedes-Benz engine and the team is doing a fantastic job! It’s going to be a good and healthy fight for the championship over the next few races and I’m really looking forward to that. Two wins in three races is pretty good going and I’ll be giving it my all. And finally I would like to dedicate this win to my two sons Eduardo and Fernando who both had their birthdays this month.”

JENSON BUTTON
“I had a really good race today and it’s a fantastic feeling to be up on the podium again. The team and Rubens did a great job this weekend and congratulations to Rubens for his second win of the season. The car worked very well all weekend and the balance was good throughout the race which meant I could set consistently quick lap times when it really mattered. The strategy that we chose on Saturday for qualifying was the perfect one for us and I was able to get ahead of Heikki on the first lap which was absolutely crucial for my race. Lewis was pushing hard behind me for the final part of the race but I was confident that I had him covered and it’s a very difficult circuit to overtake here even with KERS. We have shown that the Brawn-Mercedes is a very good car and credit to the team for the efforts that have gone into improving it over the past couple of months. It’s going to be a very exciting end of the season and a challenge that we are all looking forward to.”

ROSS BRAWN
“We are all delighted with our result this weekend after two very strong drives from Rubens and Jenson to achieve our fourth one-two finish of the season. We have a lot of very talented people at the team who have made this result possible and I am very pleased with how our race weekend here in Monza was planned and operated. The car worked well in low-downforce and the Mercedes-Benz engine gave us the power required for this high-speed circuit. This weekend has been a great result for Brawn GP but the hard work is far from over. There are four crucial races coming up which will decide the championship battle and we will be back at the factory in Brackley tomorrow and looking ahead to the next challenge in Singapore.”

Bridgestone Motorsport’s Italian Grand Prix Report

ubens Barrichello (Brawn GP Formula 1 Team) used a medium – soft tyre strategy to score his second race win of the season after a thrilling and tactical high speed Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Barrichello finished over two seconds ahead of team-mate Jenson Button who used a soft – medium strategy. Kimi Raikkonen (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro) finished third with a two stop strategy, soft – soft – medium.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, says
“Congratulations to Rubens for his second win of the season and Brawn GP for their fourth 1-2 finish this year. We saw an exciting race today and it was interesting to see how the different strategies worked. It is also always good to see a Ferrari driver on the podium on a glorious day in Italy. For Bridgestone, we were pleased that our Chairman of the Board, CEO and President, Mr Arakawa, and our other important guests were here to enjoy this great display from Formula One.”

Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says
“This was a thrilling race with a fantastic strategic battle. Even though it was a one stop strategy that won the race, it is difficult to say whether a one or a two stop was better. Both Bridgestone Potenza compounds gave very similar overall performance so there was a good variety of different strategy uses. For Brawn GP in their championship battle this was a good day. We must also mention the fighting spirit of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton who pushed very hard right to the final lap where he was unfortunate not to finish.”

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