Willi Rampf talks to the press

By Phil Huff
June 12 2004

Sauber Petronas' own Willi Rampf took part in the traditional Friday Five press conference, talking about engines, upgrades, and a lot of wind. Here's the full transcript.

Willi, can you tell us about the wind tunnel and how that has helped with developments?

Basically, the main steps in performance are coming from the wind tunnel and, as planned, the first aerodynamic parts were introduced in Imola and from there on we could increase the car performance overall and our lap times. The plan is for each event now we are bringing in new components, new parts from the wind tunnel and, up to now, we are on target.

So, what programme are they working to in the wind tunnel?

Well, basically the next steps will be a new front wing and then a new engine cover, so it is not only small parts. We try to have quite bigger steps and also big components.

And what sort of shifts are they working?

Currently we are on two shifts but that is the limit we can do, so we cannot go flat-out on two shifts. For the next weeks it will go back to a long single shift.

So, what do you think of the fact you now have your own wind tunnel?

It is great for us because it is a good tool and it is always available for us. The repeatability and the quality of the data is quite good so we are quite impressed but we are still in a learning phase in terms of how to handle the wind tunnel and how to get the best out of it.

The other thing is the engine. Are you getting updates to the engine or not?

We will get updates during the season and we expect the next update in one of the next races. It is planned for Magny Cours or Silverstone.

Have you already had an update since the beginning of the year?

No.

So that is going to be pretty important as well.

Yes.

One or two people have been saying that brakes are at the limit now and with the 28mm disc here, it’s a bit iffy. The FIA might argue you’ve just got to use bigger ducts or get more air to them. What’s the truth?

If we talk about increasing the thickness of the brake disc we would all go for smaller brake ducts, to have an aero dynamic advantage.

It looks like the qualifying rules are going to change back again for Silverstone and one of the major factors people were talking about was improving the show. What’s your opinions on that?

I would prefer to keep the current procedure, first from a commercial point of view. Two single lap qualifying runs is guaranteed television time for us. If everybody is out in a normal qualifying session I think everybody is concentrating more on the quickest cars and to run second qualifying with fuel for the race, gives us a bit more possibility of qualifying with low fuel, for instance, and starting in front more and playing a bit more with the strategy. I think this has gone if we go back to the format which is planned for Silverstone.

Given that McLaren and Toyota are producing a B-spec car this year and Williams are producing an aero upgrade and Honda has brought a big engine improvement here, do you think it is a growing trend that we are seeing teams developing almost two specs of car in a season or do you think it is just a one-off this year because the cars that were brought out were under-performing at the start of the year?

I can assure you it is not an option for us, to develop a second car during the season, just for manpower and budget reasons.