CHINESE GRAND PRIX - POST RACE SUMMARY
GRID STOPS, LAP BEST LAP RESULT
NICO ROSBERG P16 3 (25, 28, 31) 1:39.233 (6th lap 54 ) 16
ALEX WURZ P19 2 (22, 37) 1:39.743 (12th lap 54 ) 12 SYNOPSIS
The fourth Chinese Grand Prix was unrewarding for the AT&T
Williams team, a non-points scoring finish concluding an unsuccessful
fortnight in the Far East. Where other teams succeeded, both
Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz struggled to generate performance
from their tyres from the outset, which left the pair at a
performance disadvantage throughout the weekend. Although
the team prepared race strategies to combat this weakness,
the variable weather conditions during the race itself mitigated
any potential benefit and Nico was unable to finish better
than his 16th placed qualifying position, while Alex progressed
from 19th on the grid to 12th at the conclusion of the Grand
Prix. For the first time since the US Grand Prix, and fresh
from being honoured with GP2’s Rookie of the Year accolade,
the team’s test and reserve driver, Kazuki Nakajima,
returned to the cockpit for Friday’s first free practice
session.
Alongside Nico, the pair worked through a number of set-up
evaluations and tyre compares between the medium and hard
compounds. Alex resumed his seat in the afternoon to finalise
the day’s preparation work. Despite being unable to
derive optimum performance from the tyres, the team’s
drivers recorded competitive lap times, particularly on their
long runs, while covering over 650kms.
Nico and Alex commenced Saturday’s running with the
same engines as in Japan, now back in sequence following Nico’s
unscheduled change in Fuji. While preparing for qualifying,
both drivers still relayed similar concerns to the day previously.
As such, Nico recorded the 11th quickest time while Alex finished
P19 at the close of FP3. With rain predicted for Sunday’s
race, the team opted for a higher downforce set-up going into
the afternoon. Qualifying was over fairly quickly for the
team, with Alex eliminated after round one and placed in P19
and Nico only making it as far as Q2 and P16.
Sunday’s race was started under some much hoped for
wet conditions. Nico endured a poor opening lap, losing four
places off the start, but soon reclaimed position and had
progressed to 11th place by his first stop. During his stop,
the team opted to put Nico on the dry tyre and sent him out
fuelled until the end of the race. On paper, the one-stop
strategy should have placed Nico in a good points-scoring
position at the end of the race. Unfortunately, a scrap with
the Renaults in the second half saw Nico spin at turn one
and pick up a puncture. An unscheduled stop for fresh rubber
moved him down to 18th. A change in weather then forced him
in for a third stop from which he couldn’t recover rendering
him in 16th place at the finish line.
Alex, meanwhile, enjoyed a more productive start to his race,
climbing three places on the first lap. With the track starting
to dry out, Alex made the timely call to pit early to fit
his FW29 with dry tyres, the first driver to do so and which
proved to be an intelligent decision which moved him from
16th to seventh place. His second scheduled stop on lap 37
dropped him down to 12th where he finished the race.
TYRES & FUEL
Nico ran a one and Alex and two stop strategy in China. The
changeable weather conditions, however, compromised both strategies,
obliging the pair into an additional stop each, while Nico
was also forced into a further unscheduled stop following
a puncture.
SYSTEMS & RELIABILITY
Both Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz’s FW29s ran without
any reliability issues throughout the weekend.
NEXT EVENTS
The team travel to Sao Paulo next week for the final round
of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Brazilian
Grand Prix on Sunday 21st October.
SAM MICHAEL
“Any chance of collecting points in China was mitigated
by our issues in finding a suitable grip level for qualifying.
Together with the variable conditions over the weekend, the
team left Asia empty-handed. There’s always an opportunity
to capitalise on wet weather conditions, but we were compromised
from the start by our grid positions. A puncture on Nico’s
car almost certainly prevented him from a points-scoring finish
as well. We’re working hard towards finding a solution
for the qualifying grip level issue. There’s just one
race remaining and we must do everything we can in Brazil
to defend our position in the Championship.”
|
