2007 US Grand Prix, Friday - 15 JUN 2007
The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a solid opening day of practice
for the 2007 United States GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Giancarlo Fisichella (R27-05)
Free Practice 1: P16, 19 laps, 1:14.000
Free Practice 2: P15, 44 laps, 1:13.394
Fastest Lap on Hard Tyre: 1:14.000
Fastest Lap on Soft Tyre: 1:13.394
Heikki Kovalainen(R27-02, T-car)
Free Practice 1: P19, 18 laps, 1:14.189
Free Practice 2: P8, 48 laps, 1:13.110
Fastest Lap on Hard Tyre: 1:13.749
Fastest Lap on Soft Tyre: 1:13.110
The circuit was quite dirty during the morning session,
which led the team to limit its mileage and only use a single
set of hard tyres on each car as the drivers and engineers
began tuning the set-up of the R27 during the first ninety
minutes of practice. This afternoon, though, the drivers were
able to conduct a major programme of set-up improvements and
tyre comparisons, steadily improving the car's handling and
posting consistent, competitive lap-times on the longer runs.
There is still work to be done overnight to fine-tune the
handling balance of the car, which is currently tending towards
understeer for both drivers, and the team will look to build
on this solid platform through the rest of the weekend.
Heikki Kovalainen
After the problems last week in Canada, this was just the
kind of day I wanted: no technical problems, and lots of laps
on the board. We got a lot done, and improved the car with
every run. There is still a little way to go in order to dial
out some of the understeer we are suffering from, but we will
work hard overnight to find some more performance. It was
important to have a trouble-free day because this is another
new track for me. I found a good rhythm pretty quickly and
I have to say that I think it's a fun circuit to drive. I
have heard some people complaining that it is not challenging
enough, but I don't agree. There are some nice sequences of
corners, and you can really attack the curves and the exit
kerbs too. We know from the past that the lap-times here are
always extremely close in qualifying, because it is such a
short lap. That means it will be vital to get 100% out of
the car tomorrow afternoon – and I am confident we can
do it.
Giancarlo Fisichella
I must admit that I came out of the session a little bit confused.
You always expect to find more grip when you run the softer
tyre, but I didn't feel a big step in performance today, and
we will have to work this evening to understand why. The car
had quite a lot of understeer this morning, and we have worked
to get rid of it step by step. There are still some improvements
to be made, but we are getting there. I had a very positive
feeling last week in Montreal, and it is not the same here
today. The times make the situation look worse than it is,
because I was held up on my quickest lap, but I think it is
going to be a tougher race in terms of competitiveness than
last weekend.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
We ran our normal, rigorous Friday programme which included
a comprehensive evaluation of both types of tyre. This is
a demanding circuit for the tyres, and we have relatively
little knowledge of the tyre behaviour as we run here just
once a year. The drivers seem pretty happy with the general
balance, although there is still some room for improvement,
and our general level of competitiveness seems to be where
we expected.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations
As always during practice on a circuit we visit just once
a year, we had a full programme of calibration and tuning
to conduct, in order to optimise the performance of the RS27
V8. Indianapolis is a circuit of contrasting halves, combining
a demanding, prolonged period of over 20 seconds at full throttle
with a sinuous infield that demands a tractable, progressive
engine. The positive point of the day is that we encountered
no problems, and we will look to maintain that positive trend
for the rest of the weekend.
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