Arai Report - Rd.11 European Grand Prix
European Grand Prix - Arai Report
25.08.2009
With the completion of a nearly four-week vacation away from the circuit, the 2009 F1 World Championship has entered the home stretch of the season. The first race following the summer break is the European Grand Prix, set in Valencia, Spain for the second time in as many years. Without further ado, here is my report from the European GP, raced on the gorgeous Valencia street circuit.
Introducing numerous updated parts, despite a two-week summer break
This photo shows the TF109 with the rim blanking installed. After confirming the effects during testing at the Hungarian GP, the new rim blankings were installed earlier than scheduled. Having scored a double-points finish last year in Valencia, team and drivers were ready to go, despite a long vacation in the interim.
As a cost-cutting measure in F1, all team factories were required to completely close for the two-week period between August 1 and August 14. To be honest, not having experienced a complete break from race activities for this length of time, I was a little lost as to how to occupy the time. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a race this much.
On top of that, we believed that our cars would work very well at the Valencia circuit, having secured a double-points finish last year. With a double-points finish at the Hungarian GP four weeks ago, we came to the European GP with excellent momentum and high expectations for a strong result.
We modified a certain section of the floor, and we confirmed that the rim blankings (wheel caps) we tested at the Hungarian GP worked even better than we initially forecasted, so we decided to use them at the European GP, earlier than we originally planned. Despite the two-week vacation, we were still able to introduce new developments for the car, eagerly anticipating the performance of the newly evolved TF109 at the Valencia Circuit.
Fighting dusty first-day conditions on the public street circuit
Situated next to the bay, the Valencia Circuit setup utilizes regular public roads. The road was very slippery during the first morning practice of the weekend. As conditions improved, Panasonic Toyota Racing was able to work through their practice program, including tire comparisons, etc.
Combined with the new parts we brought to the circuit, we had busy Day 1 schedule for Friday free practice. We went out onto the course early to give us enough time to run through everything, but our plan quickly backfired. Consisting of public roads, the Valencia Street Circuit was extremely dusty, and we slipped all over the course early on in the session. Because the tires were slipping so much, we started to see some graining on them. Once a tire starts to grain, the graining is very difficult to get rid of, which is why our times didn’t come down during Friday morning free practice. We could have changed over to new tires, but we were planning on doing tire comparisons with the two different tire compounds during afternoon practice, so our only real choice was to leave the grained tires on for the entire morning practice.
Having learned our lessons during the morning session, we kept our drivers in the pits during afternoon practice until we could be sure that track conditions improved. Accordingly, we were able to work smoothly through our program at our own pace without a repeat of the morning troubles. While we weren’t able to break into the top 10 on the time sheets, I think that was mainly due to the fact that we completed our performance testing on new tires during the middle portion of the session. The Valencia Circuit is a course that starts out dusty, and then improves over time. That means that the drivers who went on simulated attack laps on new tires at the end of the session had vastly improved lap times, shutting us out of the top 10.
The weather was clear and sunny for all three days of the European GP this year, and the track surface improved every day. It proved to be a race in which a team’s interpretation of the track conditions made a big difference.
From a positive morning session to a completely unexpected qualifying result
On Saturday, the cars seemed to do a complete reverse from their positive direction on Friday without an apparent cause. Jarno could be heard complaining about the mysterious development. While Timo wasn’t satisfied with the car’s performance during qualifying, he looked to repeat his performance in Hungary, where he finished in the points from the same P13 spot on the starting grid.
The red flag came out during Saturday morning practice, preventing us from checking a few details before qualifying, but as of that point in the weekend, Jarno (Trulli) was positive about the car; we could never have dreamed that his car would not advance beyond Q1. We thought a change to the softer of the two tire compounds (super-soft) for the second attack lap would do the trick, but Jarno’s car continued to spin all four tires, and the complete lack of grip led to a disappointing result.
Meanwhile, we still hadn’t found the perfect setup for Timo (Glock)’s car as of Saturday morning. Even so, Timo was able to make a comparatively better attack run in qualifying. Timo was timing in the top 10 through Sector 2 on his last attack lap during Q2, but his car lost speed over Sector 3. The reason for the loss of speed was entirely due to an earlier-than-expected loss of grip in the rear tires. One explanation might have been the fact that track conditions improved much more than predicted during qualifying, with correspondingly faster lap times. At any rate, Timo’s car lost about two-tenths of a second in Sector 3 alone. With 14 drivers all inside one second of each other at the end of Q2, the Sector 3 time loss prevented Timo from advancing to the final qualifying period.
Despite the starting position handicap, we did record the fastest lap during the last stint of the race
Where passing is so difficult on the Valencia Circuit, qualifying position is all the more important. This was what made the situation with qualifying doubly unfortunate. Timo recorded the fastest single lap during the race, commenting favorably on the setup of the car. Jarno experienced grip issues from day one of the weekend all the way through to the end of the race.
On Saturday, we were able to eliminate mechanical issues as the reason for Jarno’s lack of grip during qualifying. As such, we changed his settings, and had him start as normal from the grid, rather than the pit lane. Steering splendidly through the confusion off the starting grid, Jarno moved from P18 up to P15, but the Valencia Street Circuit is one with very few overtaking spots. The race was a relatively calm affair, with 18 of the 20 cars completing the race, and preventing Jarno from having chances to improve his position.
Meanwhile, Timo started from P13 on the grid. His car was caught up in a collision with another car immediately after the start of the race, damaging his tire and forcing him into the pits. At this point, Timo fell to P19, and his race all but over. Despite the bad luck, Timo recorded the fastest single lap during the final stint of the race, and both of our drivers drove through to the end, never giving up.
This grand prix taught us again how much of the race is determined by qualifying position. We ask for your continued support as we take these lessons into the Belgian Grand Prix, fighting with everything we have on all three days of the weekend.
Noritoshi Arai in Valencia. Fighting typical street circuit track conditions, the team did not perform as well as expected in qualifying, missing the opportunity to move up during the race. The next race will be at Spa-Francorchamps under a forecast of rain. Panasonic Toyota Racing will be looking for a top finish, prepared for a knock-down-drag-out fight in qualifying.
