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SYNOPSIS:
Despite encouraging practice pace, the AT&T Williams team were unable to
convert early promise into points at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix and
return home from a six week trip to the Far East with just 3.5 points on the
board.
 Practice
saw the team carry out the usual programme of mechanical and aero set-up
work on Friday, all the more important for Nico Rosberg in Bahrain as he was
using an upgraded aero package on his FW31 for this race. With temperatures
hovering around the mid-to late thirties for the duration of the weekend,
work was focussed on determining the operating parameters and degradation
rates of the prime and option tyres, as well as the thermal parameters of
the car in such extreme heat. As such, the team ran three different cooling
levels on Friday to determine the optimum balance between keeping engine,
gearbox and electrical box temperatures controlled for reliability while
maintaining aero performance. The tyre compares undertaken showed that,
although the degradation levels weren’t significantly disparate between the
two tyre compounds, the softer tyre ran seven tenths quicker over the lap so
would be the preferred choice of the team for qualifying and the race.
Saturday’s qualifying session proved as competitive as ever among the teams.
For AT&T Williams, both Nico and Kazuki made it into Q2 but the team’s end
result of P9 for Nico (leaving his ’09 season run of Q3 entries unbroken)
and P12 for Kazuki was not unexpected. Nico struggled to optimise the grip
levels of his tyres and was left unsettled with an understeering car, while
Kazuki didn’t have the benefit of the new aero components to assist his pace
to make it into Q3.
Both drivers made good starts for Sunday’s race, but Nico’s was overshadowed
by the KERS equipped Ferraris whom he lost position to going into the first
corner and Kazuki sustained an incident on lap two which required him to
stop for a new nose leaving him at the back of the field from where he never
recovered. With just eight laps to go, the pit wall were then forced to
retire Kazuki having noticed spikes in his oil pressure. Meanwhile, Nico’s
two stop strategy involving a long first stint was compromised by traffic at
just the critical moments in his race plan leaving him to finish the race
just two tenths off a points-paying position in ninth place.
Sam Michael, Technical Director Q&A
Q: What were the
upgrades on Nico's car this weekend and how did they affect performance?
SM: We brought out some upgraded bodywork components which we ran on Nico's
car (Kazuki did not have them this weekend, but will for Barcelona). We
obviously put them through their paces during the practice sessions and they
all seemed to work fine.
Q: Nico made a good start; what caused him to lose so many places into Turn
One?
SM: Nico's start was excellent, but he was banked either side by the
Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen who both have KERS. After the
race, he reported that their speed going into the first corner was
surprising and he was simply unable to keep them behind him.
Q: How much damage was there to Kazuki's car after his crash on lap two?
SM: Kazuki damaged the left front wing endplate which, as we know,
subsequently led to an unscheduled pitstop for a nose change. After that, he
was able to continue the race unaffected.
Q: What caused Kazuki's retirement from the race?
SM: The engineers were getting readings of oil pressure dropouts so we were
forced to retire him early to avoid risking a failure.
Q: Given the lack of chimneys on the sidepods this year, how much of an
issue was cooling?
SM: Despite the temperatures in Bahrain, which saw ambients reaching 38°C
during Saturday’s qualifying and track temperatures spiking at 57°C during
Friday’s practice sessions, cooling wasn’t an issue for the FW31 over the
weekend.
Q: What was the difference in performance between the super soft and medium
compound tyres?
SM: Quite a lot, about 0.7seconds.
Q: What was the biggest thing that the team learnt at the Bahrain Grand
Prix?
SM: In summary, we didn’t leave Bahrain in the position where we needed to
be. We’ve only accumulated 3.5 points from four races this season and we
need to improve upon that going into the European rounds if we’re going to
stay in the game. It’s clear from this weekend’s Grand Prix that we
definitely need to perform better in qualifying and to assist the drivers
going into the first corner, among other things. |
Drivers
1 J Button 31
2 R Barrichello 19
3 S Vettel 18
4 J Trulli 14.5
5 T Glock 12
6 M Webber 9.5
7 L Hamilton 9
8 F Alonso 5
11 N Rosberg 3.5
19 K Nakajima 0 |
Constructors
1 Brawn GP 50
2 Red Bull Racing 27.5
3 Toyota 26.5
4 McLaren 13
5 Renault 5
6 BMW Sauber 4
7 Toro Rosso 4
8 AT&T Williams 3.5
9 Ferrari 3
10 Force India 0 |
