Turkey: Going Technical with Pascal Vasselon

By Toyota Media
August 24 2006

Pascal Vasselon gives us a technical insight into this weekends Turkish Grand Prix with his latest 'Question and Answer' session. Pascal talks about the demands of the Turkish race track as well as a new aerodynamic development.

What were your impressions of Istanbul from the first visit last year? I think most people were really impressed by how smoothly the organisation went. We were expecting some logistical problems for a first Grand Prix but everything went well – the track is beautiful, the surroundings are wonderful and so it was a very positive feeling for most people.

Were you on the bus back and forwards to Istanbul centre every day? A: The most noticeable progress we will make for our Turkey attack this year is that we will have a hotel on the right side of the Bosphorus! We won't be forced to go over the bridge. We are looking forward to Turkey because our guys will be in good shape. What did you think of the track itself and Turn 8 in particular? The track is back to average in terms of downforce level but the thing that makes it special is Turn 8, which is a triple left-hander in fact. It is faster than we expected and most of the team simulations were wrong last year. It's taken at up to 250kph and it's very tough for the drivers and very tough for the tyres. One driver renowned for his fitness said that no driver, with the exception of possibly Ralf, will be able to hold his head up in Turn 8 with even higher speeds this year? That's an interesting point because the cornering speeds will effectively be again slightly higher this year, as a result of continuous aero and tyre developments. It's true that Ralf has got a very strong neck but I think it's going to be a tough test even for him! We are used to analyse the lap time drop off in term of tyre degradation, may be in Turkey it will represent more driver degradation! How is Istanbul from a tyre point of view? In terms of tyre compromise it's a similar story to Hungary but shifting towards stronger tyres. We still have this compromise between tyres that have to be strong, especially for Turn 8, and the generally low grip of the asphalt, at least last year. But we still have to be careful because experience shows that from one year to another the asphalt surface structure of new tracks evolves quite a lot. So we could well discover conditions different from last year. Is traction a particular consideration with quite a few slow corners? Yes, but it does not make Istanbul a longitudinal track. Something very interesting was that most teams tend to go for top speed to overtake but we had a clear example last year of cars which had a very good top speed being unable to pass. And at least one car, I remember Jenson Button, had a lot of downforce and a low top speed but passed quite a lot of cars. It showed that the dominant factor in passing cars at Istanbul is pace and driveability. Top speed is obviously nice to have but if you can follow cars out of the last corner, stay close, get the tow to compensate for the straightline speed and then brake late with higher downforce, you are better able to pass. Will Toyota have any major developments on the car in Turkey? We will have some very interesting aerodynamic developments around the front wing. We know what we could expect from the wind tunnel but we will have to check afterwards to see if the figures match up on the track. But it is certainly one of the most interesting updates of the season for us. What did you think of the penalties imposed on the championship contenders in Hungary? As far as the extent of a penalty goes, that is a matter for the stewards, however you must have rules. At least in our sport all these things are imposed after careful analysis. Unlike, say, soccer, where I don't understand the reluctance to look at video evidence for important decisions. I think it's questionable when the referee takes a decision on the spot and you sometimes have to accept these huge mistakes. Our stewards tend to look at everything that is available and hear evidence from both sides, which is much better. Drivers can often easily avoid these mistakes that create such controversy. If a driver brake tests someone, you have to ask him why. In the case of Hungary, it was Friday practice and one lap behind a slower car is not the end of the world. What's your view on F1's matter of the moment – mass dampers? Controlling the body movements of an F1 offers to engineers some very interesting challenges. We are inclined to use stiff suspensions to maintain a stable aerodynamic platform. And, on the tyre side, we use low pressure for grip. So it means we put stiff suspensions on top of very soft tyres and that causes a lot of problems. The combination means that at some frequencies the suspension is locked and the car is effectively bouncing on the tyres, which are not damped. The mass damper is one of the possibilities to better control this bouncing phenomenon. From our side, we disregarded this because we considered it to be moving ballast. It is interesting to note that the mass damper is not an innovation, it is well known in engineering. It was actually used on the Citroen 2CV to counteract wheel hop! The question was: do we apply it to F1 or not? I would say it is borderline. And the next step is to make the mass bigger and bigger. But then you might also say, okay, it should be banned for the future, but it has been accepted, so why ban it in the middle of the season? Let's wait untill the end of the season. It will be answered by the International Court of Appeal very soon. That's probably the true question that has to be answered.