|
Sam Michael gives a debrief of the German Grand Prix weekend which saw the
team fail to add to their points tally.
Sam Michael, Technical Director Q&A
QQ: How did the
inclement weather on Friday and Saturday morning affect your preparations
for a dry race?
SM: It did have some bearing in that we had some new parts that we wanted to
test but couldn’t due to the bad weather. We will now run them in Budapest.
Everything else, including work on set-up, tyres and cooling, was covered
off in Friday afternoon’s session.
Q: The FW32 featured more updates at Hockenheim. What were they and how did
they affect performance?
SM: We had revised diffusers on both cars this weekend. They worked well and
demonstrably improved both drivers’ lap times.
Q: For the second time in three races you had both cars in Q3, but neither
could match their Q2 times. Why was that?
SM: Both cars had great runs in Q2. Off the back of that, we thought we
could achieve 7th and 8th in Q3. However, both Rubens and Nico’s Q3 times
were compromised by too much understeer towards the end of their fastest
laps, so we only managed 8th and 10th places.
Q: Both drivers made poor starts. Was that simply down to being on the dirty
side of the grid, or did they have technical issues?
SM: It was a combination of the two. Both drivers were on the dirty side of
the grid while our overall ability to get off the line was impeded. We
didn't have any technical issues per se, so we need to work hard to improve
our starts.
Q: Nico stayed on the super-soft tyre until lap 34. How did the rubber hold
up and, in
hindsight, was it the best strategy for him?
SM: Nico did a long opening stint, perhaps a couple of laps too long. We had
nothing to lose running him on that strategy because he was going to drop
out of the points anyway. We took the risk of a longer stop in case of a
safety car event, which would have benefited him, but that never
materialised.
Q: Looking ahead to Hungary, what can we expect from the FW32?
SM: We have some further upgrades for Hungary. The team are working hard to
bring continual improvements to the cars for each and every race. We will
have the same target that we’ve had all season – both cars in the top ten in
qualifying and points for both at the end of the race. |
Drivers
1 L Hamilton 157
2 J Button 143
3 M Webber 136
4 S Vettel 136
5 F Alonso 123
6 N Rosberg 94
7 R Kubica 89
8 F Massa 85
11 R Barrichello 29
17 N Hulkenberg 2 |
Constructors
1 McLaren 300
2 Red Bull Racing 272
3 Ferrari 208
4 Mercedes GP 132
5 Renault 96
6 Force India 47
7 AT&T Williams 31
8 BMW Sauber 15
9 Toro Rosso 10
10 Lotus Racing 0 |
