Dry tyres & rain threats on day 2 at Silverstone

By Huw Alban
June 14 2006

Grey skies and mist were a far cry from the baking sun of race day at Silverstone, but that's what Midland F1 had to contend with today and they had to work hard to complete a dry tyre test before the weather worked against them. MF1O were there to see how they did it.

Shock news folks! The British summer is over! On Sunday at Silverstone the temperature was up in the 30s, but today only three days later we're at least half that. After periods of steady rain overnight, the day dawned grey and misty and when I arrived at the circuit the temperature was a mighty cool 14ºC. Of course, like the internet-brainwashed fool I am, I took the BBCs word that the day was going to be warm and sunny and so kitted myself out in my shorts and t-shirt; big mistake! Thank heavens I had a MidlandF1 fleece to keep me warm, but that was only available by luck more than judgement.

Unfortunately I could only be at the test for the morning so I resolved to make the most of the time and bring you as much as I could.

Tiago Monteiro had already completed an installation lap by the time I parked up behind the Midland F1 garage. Oh, and you know those lorries and bits of buildings in the paddock that I talked about yesterday? Well, they're all gone; if it weren't for the F1 Paddock arch standing all alone you'd never know that the Grand Prix paddock had been here at all.

When I walked out into the pit lane I noticed that the red lights were on indicating that the circuit was closed. Since Midland are the only team here, and I definitely heard a car return to the garage, I assumed it must have been for another reason. The pit lane marshal, Anthony, informed me that there was low mist around the circuit that was preventing the emergency helicopter from flying. This helicopter would be used if there was a major incident requiring a driver or team staff member to be taken quickly to hospital. Since this couldn't happen at the moment, the session was closed.

As the team had very little to do when I showed my face outside the garage, I received a good number of hellos and had a number of interesting conversations.

Yesterdays wet laps by Tiago late in the afternoon were used by the team to test the Traction Control systems in extreme wet conditions. Basically, Tiago was driving his laps and gradually turning the degree of Traction Control down in order that the team could analyse data relating to it's effects. Since the M16 was launched there has only been one occasion where the team have been able to use extreme wet tyres and had the opportunity to collect data, so yesterday was a useful opportunity.

Today the team were wanting to work on a dry tyre development programme, and so were hoping that the mist would lift so that they could get to work. When the session went green, Tiago took a road car out on the circuit for several exploratory laps and came back saying that it was still very damp under the bridge at Bridge Corner. The decision was made to wait another 15 minutes and then go out and have a go.

At 10:00, Tiago Monteiro took the M16 out for 3 timed laps. These passed without incident, but on his in lap he spun the car leaving Copse corner getting the car well sideways. He managed to recover and return to the garage, and the team appeared to be quite amused by the incident. Amusement, however, turned to concern after a thorough check of the car revealed that the bottom of the left barge board assembly had been damaged. With grey skies overhead and the constant threat of rain, the team repaired the damage using epoxy resin and a couple of rivets. Total repair time about 5 minutes; impressive!

Tiago put in another 3 timed laps, and this time on what was referred to as 'control tyres'. When he returned, he was complaining of understeer so the front wing was given three turns upwards to improve the front downforce. Whilst all this was going on, the team staff were being organised to turn the car around quicker after each three lap run. It appeared that the team really wanted to complete this dry tyre test, and were really concerned about rain spoiling their work.

Another set of tyres and three more timed laps saw the Portuguese driver still complaining of slight understeer, so the front wing got another turn upwards. Two minutes later and the car was back out on a new set of rubber. The team really were earning their keep today.

I took to the track to get some pictures, and noted that at the end of Tiago's next 3 lap run his in lap was very very slow. I later found out that he had again spun the car at Copse Corner at 220kph and taken the tyres down to the canvas. No wonder he was taking it easy on the in lap.

There was a short delay, presumably to check the car out for any further damage, and he was back out again. Over the next hour and a half he put in another 5 runs, which passed without incident, and the rain stayed away. I went to Bridge, Abbey, Club and Stowe corners throughout that time and noted that he was really pushing the car quite hard on each flying lap. I was impressed by this, as I had learned earlier that he was still complaining that his neck was sore after the British Grand Prix. It was explained to me that from Copse Corner right up to the Hanger Straight, the car is pulling anywhere between 3 and 5 gravities at each corner. Do that for 60 laps and your body knows about it.

I learned another interesting fact today. Above the each car in the garage is an assembly (see pic to the right) that holds strip lights to illuminate the car, electric plug sockets for power tools and tyre warmers, and all sorts of other gadgets used by the mechanics to go about their work. At the front of this assembly are three lights which can either be red or green. I'd always wondered what they mean, and today I found enlightenment.

There are three areas of the garage that need to be ready in order for the car to go out on the track. These areas are not immediately visible to the staff in the garage, so they signal their readiness by using these lights. The three areas are control who stand to the side of the garage in front of laptops, data collection who site out of sight at the back of the garage in front of all the telemetry, and Toyota who are also secreted somewhere. Everything else relating to car readiness is immediately visible and can be communicated with hand signals or over the team radio. Pretty cool I thought.

The team were enjoying a hard earned lunch when I left the circuit. Apparently they had been successful in completing their dry tyre programme, and were going to use the remaining mileage on the current Toyota engine (about 30 laps I was told) to work on other developments with Giorgio Mondini at the wheel in the afternoon.

I'll be back here tomorrow for the afternoon session only. I am told that Giorgio Mondini will be doing the honours in the morning, with Christijan Albers completing the test in the afternoon.

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