Turkish GP: Midland F1 Online previews round 14

By Huw Alban
August 22 2006

It’s been three weeks since the last race in Hungary, but MF1 have both been busy and been in the news. Far from having a break the team have been busy rolling out new developments, and pumping out new information on their website.

The press have also been busy in the three week gap, with fresh rumors appearing concerning an imminent sale of the team. Outside appearances suggest that it is business as usual for Midland F1 Racing, so until we hear anything official from the team we’ll skip over this one.

The team, taking advantage of a clause in the test agreement, performed a one day straight line test in the UK to enable the team to, “to check our numbers, basically, and then move slightly outside what is tested in the tunnel to see if the results correspond with our extrapolations from scale testing. It gives us an opportunity to look at some of the parts we have recently brought to the car – for example, the rear brake disc shrouds – and see if they are generating the additional load we saw in the tunnel.”

By all accounts, MF1’s Chief Race and Test Engineer Dominic Harlow appeared to be pleased with the work done during the test, which is good to hear. In addition to this the team will have been busy bringing forward new parts ready for Turkey, and now after the wind tunnel calibration exercise, should have a pretty good idea how they should perform.

The team’s marketing and press people have also been busy pumping out new information about the team, namely the IT Department, the design of the Midland F1 livery, and most recently a cracking article about the radio systems that the team uses.

Add to that the much talked about demo in Rotterdam and you’ll perhaps understand why I feel that, on the surface at least, everything is normal in the Midland F1 camp.

As for Turkey, well Tiago claims the circuit is a leveler because it is so new but I’m not so sure. Regular fans of the sport have seen time and time again that the cream normally rises to the top whatever the situation (Hungary perhaps being a scarce exception to that rule).

Dominic Harlow has taken a slightly more optimistic view than myself. “Our setup will concentrate mainly on platform stability and we will target a lower downforce level than normal – closer to what we used in the Canadian and US events than the last race in Hungary. During the longer break between races, we have been able to produce some further important aerodynamic updates for the M16, and with help from our partners at Toyota and Bridgestone, we are looking forward to making further progress with the qualifying and race pace of our package,” he says in the official team preview. I seem to remember that we were quite racy at Indianapolis as well :o)

So, here’s to a good weekend, free from useless rumor and gossip, and a good show from the Midland boys. I know there’s a danger of me saying it, but I wonder whether we stand a chance of snatching a point this weekend…