2007 British Grand Prix,
The ING Renault F1 Team today completed a solid first day
of practice at a cool and windy Silverstone, ahead of Sunday's
2007 British Grand Prix.
Giancarlo Fisichella (R27-02, T-car)
Free Practice 1: P14, 1:23.179, 21 tours
Free Practice 2: P12, 1:22.257, 39 tours
Heikki Kovalainen (R27-03)
Free Practice 1: P13, 1:23.099, 25 laps
Free Practice 2: P11, 1:22.189, 42 laps
Throughout the field, drivers had to contend with a gusting
wind of up to 40 kph around the challenging, high-speed circuit,
which led to a large number of cars running off track at different
points of the day. However, Renault drivers Giancarlo Fisichella
and Heikki Kovalainen were both able to complete substantial
technical programmes comprised of set-up changes, and comparisons
between the Bridgestone Potenza tyre compounds selected for
this race. Both drivers made good steps forward with the car
set-up throughout the day and, as usual, the team expects
an increase in relative competitiveness during the third practice
session, when teams usually begin running more comparable
programmes and fuel loads ahead of qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Heikki Kovalainen
This was a better start to my weekend than I had in Magny-Cours.
The basic car balance felt pretty good today, but the wind
always makes life difficult, because the gusts mean every
car feels inconsistent from lap to lap, and corner to corner
even. There is still work for us to do overnight to find more
performance, but already from this morning to this afternoon,
it felt like we made a good step forward – even through
the positions don't necessarily suggest so. We are definitely
working in the right direction, so if we can do the same again
before tomorrow, we should be in pretty good shape.
Giancarlo Fisichella
The car was quite competitive, and particularly on the long
runs when the balance felt pretty good. But I encountered
quite a lot of traffic, the circuit is pretty bumpy, and you
have head or tailwinds changing all the time which makes it
hard to find the right braking points, so there's quite a
lot of work to do, in order to understand our basic potential
I think. But if we look at our programme, we can be happy
with the number of laps we did, and the progress we made.
After that, we need to make the most of the conditions, because
they will be the same for everybody, and keep on moving forward
with the set-up of the car.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
It was extremely difficult to accomplish much today, with
the wind gusting in the way it was. I don't think I have ever
seen so many cars running wide at turn 1, which was surely
caused by the tailwinds down the pit straight. Nevertheless,
we were able to confirm some of the results from our test
here two weeks ago, especially with regard to the tyres. We
felt confident after that Silverstone test, and the confidence
remains this evening.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
In spite of having tested here recently, we completed a large
number of laps today, trying to get on top of the windy conditions,
which are always a tricky challenge when it comes to finding
a good balance. The temperatures are also below average, and
so as usual when we encounter slightly unusual conditions,
we had to tune the engine for maximum performance in this
context. Silverstone is a circuit where the fuel effect is
particularly high, so as always, one should be wary of drawing
too many hasty conclusions from the timesheets – although
it is clear that McLaren and Ferrari are still well ahead
of the field, and evenly matched as they were last week in
Magny-Cours. Our focus today at Renault was on getting our
work done and preparing thoroughly for the race. We undoubtedly
achieved that, and are now in a strong position to chase some
more performance during tomorrow's final practice session.
|
