SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX DEBRIEF
MARTIN WHITMARSH
That was an exciting race and Lewis's calmness under
pressure was particularly impressive?
”I can't emphasise enough just how cool and collected
Lewis stayed during the race. He was under immense pressure
not only to get a result but also not to make a mistake -
in some of the trickiest conditions he has ever driven in.
That he managed to do so with such calmness and presence of
mind is astounding - over the radio, it sounded as if Lewis
was on a quiet Sunday drive - he was relaxed and calm; nothing
seemed too difficult for him. After the first stop, we were
aware of the situation with Kimi's tyres and duly informed
Lewis. and even before his second stop we urged him to look
after the car and measure his pace as a precaution in the
weather conditions. We even recommended he ease his pace into
the closing laps and he came back on the radio and told us
he was already driving as slowly as he could!”
The weather kept changing throughout the race, what
was the value of weather forecasting?
”Obviously, in situations like these we keep an extremely
close eye on the weather forecast. We use a number of different
sources to give us the clearest indication of any approaching
weather fronts. At the beginning of the race, we knew it was
going to stop raining shortly before the start but that there
would be a light shower at 1.00pm which had a 50:50 chance
of hitting the circuit. We also knew there was heavier rain
forecast for the middle sector of the race, and it was fortunate
that the heaviest rain showers were only brief. That coincided
with one of the busiest and most chaotic sectors of the race
as many drivers struggled to cope with the standing water.
Just before Lewis's second stop, he actually questioned over
the radio whether it was worth switching to extremes and we
reassured him that our weather forecast was predicting the
rain would clear up. Happily that proved to be right and kept
the wet weather tyres on for the final stint.”
What was the problem with Lewis's visor?
”Midway through the middle stint, Lewis came on the
radio and told us he was having significant visibility problems.
We weren't sure of the extent of the problem but later found
out that he was having a fogging problem on the right-hand-side
of the visor - and opening the visor just a little was causing
the rain to flood into his helmet. We radioed him to ask if
he wanted to pit early but he told us he could cope with the
problem - that's a testament to just how cool and calm he
remained during the race. You actually saw him wiping his
visor down the Hangar Straight at one point. We took the decision
on the pitwall to clean his visor on the inside and outside
and positioned one of the mechanics to do so during his second
stop. It's actually a very rare occurrence and this sort of
fogging problem has not occurred before.”
Heikki achieved his first ever Formula 1 pole position
- what happened to him during the race?
”Heikki's race was made difficult by problems with graining
on his rear tyres, which affected him in all three stints
and made his car increasingly difficult to drive. In the closing
laps, he was left vulnerable to the cars behind him but made
a superb effort to push past Fernando in a car that was badly
compromised on grip and traction. From the start of the race,
he started complaining about a lack of grip at the rear-end
and the car became increasingly snappy in both the high and
low-speed corners - obviously that trait made the car increasingly
hard to control. But his speed across the whole weekend was
incontestable: the changes we've recently made to the car
seemed to particularly suit Heikki and both his confidence
and driving hit a new peak at Silverstone this weekend. He
should be massively encouraged by the speed and consistency
that he showed in qualifying. I think Heikki can take a lot
away from this weekend and feel very encouraged by his performance.”
Did the aerodynamic and mechanical improvements you
made for the test reap their rewards during the race?
”The car certainly felt a great deal more balanced.
Of course, we've been making systematic changes all season
but we made a good step for Magny-Cours and followed it up
with some further changes in last week's Silverstone test.
Both Lewis and Heikki revelled in the revised balance and
it showed clearly on Friday and Saturday at Silverstone. Both
aerodynamic and mechanical changes have brought good dividends,
but are only a small part of our seasonal upgrade programme.”
I believe you were also using a new oil from the
team’s technology partner ExxonMobil this weekend?
“During the past six months McLaren Racing and Mercedes-Benz
technical team have been working with the engineers and chemists
at ExxonMobil carrying out a detailed re-examination of the
friction response characteristics of the V8 engine. The engine
design freeze regulation challenged us to re-examine some
of our conventional understanding on how the oil can make
a difference to the engine performance and there is no doubt
that Mobil 1 has helped to achieve a performance gain by carefully
matching a variety of oil properties to the current V8 engine
design – as stipulated by the regulations.”
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