13/09/2002

Italian Grand Prix - Free Practice Round-Up

For the final European Grand Prix of the season round 15 of the 17-race FIA Formula 1 World Championship the teams are at Monza one of the most historic and evocative venues on the calendar.

The famous autodromo in the middle of Monza's park was flat-out almost all the way round until the early 1970s giving rise to a different kind of race known as 'the Monza slipstreamers' where races could be won and lost depending on gearing out of the final corner.

Today speeds have been slowed by chicanes but the 5.79km track is still all about low downforce and flat-out running. Provided that traction out of the chicanes is reasonable the circuit rewards power and places heavy demands on engines - one of Panasonic Toyota Racing's strongest features. At the end of the opening day of free practice Mika Salo is in 6th place with a fastest lap of 1m23.925s. Team-mate Allan McNish was down in 18th place with a 1m25.546s best after missing most of the second practice session due to a mechanical problem.

"We had a little bit of understeer but apart from that the car was good and I think that as at Spa the characteristics of this circuit suit us pretty well " Salo said. "We can use the engine to good effect and the low downforce requirements are working to our advantage. We tested here last week and it looked quite promising for the race.!"

McNish found that the car balance was not as good as in last week's Monza test with understeer a problem for him in the first session.

"Then in the second session we tried a launch start but had a problem with the gearbox " the Scot explained. "The team guys did a really great job of changing the rear end but unfortunately our running today was not really worthwhile. It's a very bad start to the weekend because you cannot afford to lose any time at all never mind effectively two sessions."

Technical Co-Ordinator Keizo Takahashi summarised the day's sessions: "In today's two free practice sessions we used last week's test data and we have quite a good feeling. The high-speed Monza circuit suits the TF102 and we have found a good set-up on Mika's car. Allan had a gearbox-related problem when trying a launch control start towards the beginning of the second session losing most of the second session."