First day goals: settle issues from Spain; confirm performance of new aero parts

Monaco is known as a low-speed circuit where teams always bring new and unusual aerodynamic parts. Having already made adjustments to obtain appropriate downforce levels in connection with regulation changes this year, the team decided that there was no need for special components.

The Monaco street circuit is a continuously twisting layout with no high-speed corners. This grand prix is known as one where teams bring a special set of aero parts to gain more downforce, even in the presence of a higher degree of air resistance. This year there have been some major changes to aerodynamic regulations, which limited how many modifications we can actually make. Given these rules, we didn’t plan to introduce any unusual wings or unique aero parts.
Even so, Panasonic Toyota Racing brought some new aerodynamic parts with us to Monaco. We weren’t able to actually use the new parts we brought with us to Spain two weeks ago. That’s not to say that the parts we developed performed poorly; rather, we weren’t able to make effective use of them during the three hours of free practice on Friday before the Spanish GP. Accordingly, we revisited our first-day program leading into the Monaco GP, intending to race using our newest aero parts this time. Fortunately, just prior to the start of the weekend, the forecast changed to one calling for stable conditions; we planned to take full advantage of the weather on the first day of the race weekend, building up a high number of laps on the circuit.

A tough first day; using the weekend schedule to work with the factory toward some answers

It was a frantic first day of the race weekend, as the team was busy evaluating the performance of the front wing and other detailed aero parts. Finding no way to improve tire grip on the track surface, the team conferred with the factory during the Friday break, attempting to work out some solutions.

Contrary to our first-day experiences so far, this weekend, both team drivers struggled with a lack of grip on the first day of practice. Certainly, the Monaco circuit is known to be slippery on Day One. We were particularly busy installing and removing the new aero parts for testing during the morning. Even considering all of the circumstances, we had a very difficult Thursday right from the start.
We put the drivers on the super-soft tires during afternoon practice, but we didn’t see any appreciable improvement in conditions; we just couldn’t get a sharp lap time. Our lack of grip not only affected our short-run speed, but also left us with some concern about stability during long runs. Even without strong short-run times, stability on long runs would have given us something positive to take with us into the race. But, we weren’t able to carry a heavy fuel load and turn that into improved lap times over a long run, leaving us with many issues to resolve going into Saturday.
Fortunately for us, the first day of practice at the Monaco GP is Thursday, followed by a one-day break until resuming on Saturday. Further, there is no time difference between Monaco and Cologne, Germany, where the Panasonic Toyota Racing factory is located. Both the team at the circuit and the staff at the factory were able to work together effectively. A sign of a top team is whether it can come together to overcome tough situations like this, and our plan was to make the most of the time available to us on Friday.

Nothing seems to work; an unexpected result in qualifying

The team wasn’t able to resolve Thursday’s concerns, leading to an all-time low in qualifying results. While the car began to improve little-by-little, lack of grip and on-course traffic combined to keep the team from advancing to Q2 for the first time this season.

Not only did we have our worst qualifying result ever for a Monaco GP, it was our worst qualifying result since Panasonic Toyota Racing started in F1 in 2002. I can tell you that every single team member was discouraged with the result, but we feel worse for disappointing the great number of fans in Japan who stayed up late to cheer us on, as well as all of the Panasonic Toyota Racing fans around the world. We have had some disappointing qualifying performances in the past, but this weekend we had nothing in qualifying or at any time during practice to point to as a highlight. From the start of the grand prix, never once did we turn in anything resembling a satisfactory lap. It was a very difficult weekend for us as developers.
After finishing our program during Saturday morning’s free practice, we decided that our new aero package wasn’t at the stage where it Despite these results, we couldn’t just look on wistfully at the other teams. On Friday before qualifying, we held a video conference with TMG, going over various potential answers prior to Saturday morning free practice. We changed the program for each driver, and despite trying different setups, we didn’t see an improvement in grip levels. There weren’t any issues with car balance—we simply could not find a way to get our tires to grip the track surface. Experiencing these mystifying symptoms, we were faced with going into what was shaping up to be a very difficult qualifying session.
Looking back, I realize that we had issues in the low-speed Sector 3 section of the Spanish GP two weeks ago. While the low-speed section of the Catalunya Circuit represents about one-third of the entire circuit, the entire Monaco course is low-speed. I think this fact exposed the shortcomings of our car. Certainly, we weren’t able to find a setup to match the car to the Monaco track, but I never dreamed that both cars would be knocked out of qualifying in Q1. Jarno Trulli was .5 seconds quicker than his best time in Sector 2, but he had some bad luck in being balked by traffic in the final corner.
In any event, we were set to start the race from the back of the grid, so we started working on some bold strategies going into the race.

Data gathered from two different specifications will help us return to form in Turkey

Unable to identify the troubles that affected qualifying, the team decided to change Timo’s setup and leave Jarno’s setup untouched for the race. Performance remained unchanged, however, and the best that can be said is that both cars quietly completed the entire length of the Monaco Grand Prix.

We decided to start Timo Glock from pit lane on Sunday’s race based on our judgment that the settings Timo used during qualifying wouldn’t have been helpful. Having said that, we still hadn’t identified the underlying cause of our troubles, so we left Jarno’s settings as they were to see how our performance would change based on track conditions.
We started both cars on the soft tire compound. As far as we could tell from our lap times, our lack of grip seemed to have improved quite a bit compared to Saturday. Our drivers, however, experienced different reactions on the super-soft compound. Timo reported improving grip the longer he was out on the course. In contrast, Jarno reported that he still had not grip. Each driver’s performance seemed to back up their claims, as Timo recorded his best lap time on the super-softs, while Jarno had his best lap time on the second set of soft tires.
During the last stint, Timo was running on the super-soft tires, which we predicted would degrade significantly in performance. That Timo’s lap times remained almost the same over the entire stint was an important lesson for us to be able to apply to chassis development. Still, comparing our times to Brawn GP and Alonso (Renault), we can see many issues that need improvement.
In addition to our trouble with lack of grip this weekend, we also had issues with the new front wing we tested on Thursday, deciding not to use it on Saturday or Sunday. We experienced many stumbles right from the opening minutes of the Monaco GP weekend, but we will be exercising all care and diligence to ensure that the same circumstances won’t happen in Turkey. Everyone at Panasonic Toyota Racing asks for your continued support.