2006 Brazilian GP, Friday 20th October - 20 OCT 2006
The Renault F1 Team ran its normal Friday practice routine
today at Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit, with drivers Fernando
Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella evaluating tyre types and
fine-tuning chassis set-ups for this demanding circuit.
As the circuit is little-used throughout the season, grip
levels improved steadily throughout both sessions, with lap-times
improving as cars laid down more rubber and ran new tyres
towards the end of the second practice hour.
Both Renault drivers showed competitive form early in the
session, and set consistently competitive times on used tyres
as they began assessing the consistency of Michelin's products,
while also fine-tuning chassis set-up. They obtained good
results, and have a firm direction in which to work overnight.
Fernando Alonso, P10, 17 laps total, 1:13.820
The grip levels were very low today, and the track was getting
better and better as the session went on. That means it's
difficult to draw too many conclusions about the set-up or
the performance of the car, and we will have to work well
this evening to anticipate how the circuit will change for
tomorrow and the race. So what counts today is the basic feeling,
and it was good, with no problems at all in either session.
The Michelin tyres were working well, and the car was pretty
comfortable to drive. So I am feeling happy, and confident
for the rest of the weekend.
Giancarlo Fisichella, P12, 18 laps total, 1:14.053
With difficult track conditions today, it was hard to put
together the best lap straight away on new tyres. There is
some work to do on the car balance as I had too much oversteer,
especially in the second sector, but we improved the situation
during practice – and we will hope to take another step
forward for tomorrow. We will look hard at the tyre choice
tonight because that will be an important factor for the rest
of the weekend, but I think we are in a good position.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
In spite of what's at stake this weekend, we had a very normal
Friday, running our usual programme evaluating the two types
of Michelin tyre we have brought to this race. There does
not appear to be a big difference between them at the moment,
and we will study the data tonight to select the right tyre
for the race. Both cars were suffering from some oversteer
today, but we took a step in the right direction during the
session and will improve further overnight. The engines performed
without incident, so all in all, it was a typical Friday made
up of solid race preparation.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations
As we have become used to saying this year, this was a normal
Friday for the team. This morning, we chose to swap Fernando's
original engine for a unit of the same specification that
was installed in the spare car, because the latest results
of our dyno testing in Viry indicated it offered us the optimum
performance-reliability compromise. This unit functioned faultlessly
today, as did the E specification engine in Giancarlo's car.
On the engine side, we did plenty of laps and have the data
we needed to conduct our usual approval processes, and fine-tune
the mapping of the V8's. As always, much of the day was devoted
to fine-tuning the chassis set-up, which is particularly important
at such a tricky circuit. We made solid progress, and will
continue in the same direction tomorrow.
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