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Mark Gillan, Chief
Operations Engineer:
Monza marks the last of the European races before the cars head off on
their extended seven race round the world trip. Monza is an interesting
circuit with the highest top and average speeds of any circuit, although
cornering speeds are similar to that of Barcelona. Aerodynamic
efficiency and engine power sensitivities are therefore very high and so
is braking severity. It also has a high pit loss and low fuel effect
that tends to favour less stops. The tyres are the same as raced in Spa,
namely the Hard and Medium tyres.
Bruno Senna:
While we didn’t finish in the points the car showed good pace at Spa,
particularly on the long straights, so the signs are looking good
heading into Monza. It’s a very fast circuit and is a real old fashioned
test for the driver’s so I’m looking forward to the race. The team is
working very hard to get the maximum out of the car and if we can get
qualifying right we should be looking for a points finish.
Pastor Maldonado:
Monza is another historic track that drivers like visiting so I’m really
looking forward to this weekend. It’s the quickest track we visit all
season and requires a very particular set up with a completely different
aero package. The car has low down force levels at Monza so we will have
to adapt to that setup. The track itself is a challenging one for
drivers and has quite a few overtaking opportunities so it should be an
exciting weekend for the fans.
Rémi Taffin, Head of
Renault Sport F1 Track Operations:
The driver will spend as much as 75% of the lap at full throttle so we
make sure that all the internals, maps, fuel and lubricants settings are
triple checked. We could run a test engine to as much as 3,000km on a
simulation of this track to check reliability and performance, ten times
a race distance. Monza has two very long straights that are over a
kilometre each so we work to create a powerful map that works well over
the last two thousand revs, but we also need good acceleration out of
the very slow chicanes as the driver will brake down from over 330kph to
just 80kph before accelerating back up to over 300kph in a little over
150m.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli
Motorsport Director:
Monza is our home race, just half an hour from our headquarters in
Milan, so we’re all very much looking forward to it. Like Spa, this is a
high speed and high energy circuit, so we have selected the P Zero
Silver hard and P Zero White medium once more. These compounds should
allow the teams to push hard from start to finish at the fastest circuit
of the year, which is also steeped in Formula One history. We’re
expecting to see a wide variety of race strategies, which has become a
key ingredient to success during a season where the cars have never been
so closely matched.
Race Data
Friday:
Practice 1: 10:00 - 11:30
Practice 2: 14:00 - 15:30
Saturday:
Practice 3: 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying: 14:00 – 15:00
Sunday: Race: 14:00
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