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SYNOPSIS:
AT&T Williams returned home from the European Grand Prix at Valencia with a
seventh consecutive point-scoring finish courtesy of Nico Rosberg’s fifth
place following another strong weekend in which the FW31 further proved
itself as strong on a fast and flowing street circuit as it is on tight and
twisty tracks such as Budapest. Friday’s practice sessions ran smoothly,
(albeit commencing on a green track and under extreme humidity levels which
remained for the rest of the weekend), with the team working through routine
set-up work and tyre compares on varying fuel loads. Despite some minor tyre
graining issues, Nico closed the day in P4 and Kazuki in P5.
 The
team entered qualifying optimistic of easing both drivers into top ten grid
slots and, for the 10th time this season, Nico drove his FW31 into a place
in Q3 and to seventh on the grid with the heaviest fuel load alongside
Webber. Meanwhile, Kazuki’s afternoon was over before it had begun when he
suffered a technical problem during his second Q1 run.
Eliminated in Q1 for the first time this season, Kazuki was left in P17 and
on the dirty side of the grid for Sunday’s race. Lining up down the order
allowed the team to opt for an aggressive one stop strategy on Kazuki’s car.
Fuelled longer than those around him, Kazuki’s assertive opening lap
promoted him three places up the order and into 14th by the end of the first
lap. While running in 13th place and racing for 11th after pitstop
correction, Kazuki picked up a left rear puncture. Although only two stops
ahead of schedule, the additional stop time cost Kazuki ground on track and
left him at the back of the pack when he rejoined.
Concerned that damage caused by the puncture could cause potential damage to
the gearbox, the team retired Kazuki two laps before the end of the race,
thereby ending a frustrating weekend.
Race day proved more successful for Nico. With KERS of little advantage
going into the first corner, and on the clean side of the grid on the prime
tyre, Nico was able to make up a place off the line to run in P6, and then
P5 courtesy of Vettel’s retirement, before the first round of stops. The
team’s strategy to fight for fourth against Raikkonen was, however, short
lived when Nico lost time during his second stint. Despite Alonso gaining
ground after the second round of stops, Nico held him at bay to cross the
line in P5. Sunday’s result consolidates the team’s sixth position in the
Constructors’ and Nico’s fifth place in the drivers’ table.
Q&A WITH ROD NELSON,
CHIEF OPERATIONS ENGINEER
Q: How did the
high temperatures in Valencia affect the performance of the FW31?
RN: Although it felt very hot in Valencia, temperatures weren’t actually
that high; it just felt extremely hot due to the high humidity levels. As a
comparison, air temperatures at the Bahrain Grand Prix reached 39°C with
just 10% humidity, while temperatures were just 31°C in Valencia but
humidity levels hit 60%.
Q: Were there any tyre wear issues on either car?
RN: We didn’t have any significant tyre wear problems, no. We experienced a
little graining on the front left tyre, but it didn't have any significant
impact on performance.
Q: How much did the track conditions change over the course of the weekend?
RN: Although the circuit wasn't too dusty, the track was quite green in the
early stages of Friday’s practice session because there wasn't any rubber on
the track. We were running the softest Bridgestone tyres which laid plenty
of rubber down and that certainly helped increase grip levels. On average,
that improved the lap times by approximately one second per lap in each
session.
Q: What caused the technical problem on Kazuki's car during qualifying, and
where could he
have qualified without it?
RN: We had an issue with the throttle control system on Kazuki's car during
his second run in qualifying. We have a safety system in place which shuts
the engine down if it detects that the throttles are not following the
driver’s demand, so this kicked in and stopped Kazuki out on track. Both
Nico and Kazuki were close all weekend up to this point so he should
certainly have made it into the top ten. It's very difficult to be accurate
when the grid is so tight, but I estimate he should have qualified between
sixth and ninth.
Q: How did your cars fare against the KERS cars of McLaren and Ferrari at
the start of the
race?
RN: KERS wasn't a big issue at the start for two reasons. Firstly, turn one
isn't always taken flat out at the start of the race (particularly if you
are on the dirty, left-hand side of the track (where Raikkonen was), so the
KERS cars can't use the additional 80 horsepower anyway. Secondly, it's also
then a relatively short distance to the first serious braking point for turn
two.
Q: Nico finished less than a second behind Heikki Kovalainen. Was fourth
place ever really on the cards for him?
RN: We were aiming for Nico to finish ahead of Raikkonen and that was
achievable. However, in the early part of Nico's second stint, we
unexpectedly lost some performance for about 10 laps and that consigned us
to finishing not only behind Raikkonen, but also behind Kovalainen as well.
Q: What caused Kazuki's puncture on lap 39, and why wasn't he able to finish
the race?
RN: When the tread of the rear left tyre was returned to us we saw a large
cut which we believe was the cause of the tyre failure. Grosjean apparently
had similar damage to one of his tyres. It seems likely that the damage was
caused by something on the track, a kerb for example. We saw on the
telemetry data that there could have been possible damage to the gearbox
caused by Kazuki driving back to the pits with the punctured tyre. As we
didn't want to have a potentially dangerous failure out on-track, we retired
the car.
Q: Looking ahead, how do you think the FW31 will perform at Spa next
weekend?
RN: We’ve seen over the past few races that the FW31 is pretty competitive
at most types of track. We are also introducing some new aero components for
Spa which should help us to maintain our relative competitiveness so we are
optimistic for a good result. |
