The key to Monza this year is how to deal with the new higher chicane curbing without losing speed

The keys for success at the ultra-high-speed Monza circuit are top speed in Sector 1 and having a machine that can go over the new higher curbs in the chicanes. That was Jarno’s analysis, as he exuded confidence going in to his home country grand prix.

Monza basically consists of straights connected by chicanes and high-speed corners. As usual with the Italian GP, we brought front and rear wings specially designed for this circuit. We also made some slight modifications to the turning vanes installed under the nose of the car. While there had been no modifications to the circuit itself, the first two of the three chicanes sported a new shape to their curbing. Similar to the chicane before the final corner at the Barcelona circuit, a higher mound was placed behind the regular curbing, requiring some extra care when passing through these chicanes.
Last year we struggled through three days of rain on race weekend in Italy. Except for a thunderstorm on Friday night, this year we enjoyed dry conditions. At the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago, issues with our start and pit stops prevented us from making the most of a hard-earned top qualifying position. We came to the Italian GP all the more determined to use what we learned to capture a strong result here at the Italian GP.

A circuit where minor differences in setup result in significant differences in track position; working to finalize adjustments during free practice

Similar in nature to the low-downforce Spa circuit, the team took the Spa specification and added a Monza-spec front wing, rear wing, and side pontoons. Fighting slippery conditions, the team used Friday to focus on car setup for qualifying.

We demonstrated good pace from the start during Friday practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, but it took us some time to find our regular pace at the Italian GP this past weekend. Last year there was a joint testing session at Monza before the race. This year, however, in-season testing has been prohibited. Without the normal build-up of rubber on the track, we faced very slippery conditions at the outset of the weekend.
Due to the conditions, we made some major changes to our mechanical setup after Friday morning practice. Our changes seemed to do the trick, as both Jarno (Trulli) and Timo (Glock) were back on our normal pace during the afternoon practice. Still, we didn’t feel that we were experiencing the same advantages that we saw at the Belgian GP, and we continued making adjustments to the cars going in to qualifying. Qualifying in F1 this year has been a very nip-and-tuck proposition, with slight changes to car setup resulting in major differences in starting grid position. There’s no time to relax at any point. If you aren’t in the top 10 on the starting grid in a modern F1 race, then you can’t really expect to have a decent result. We looked forward to a tough battle in Saturday qualifying as we finished out our first-day work with the goal of qualifying both cars in the top 10 on the grid in the Italian GP.

A grueling afternoon of qualifying, with 19 cars covered by less than one second; a combination of insufficient adjustments and bad luck keep us from advancing to Q3

Bridgestone projected that their soft tire compound for Monza would last about half of the total race laps—enough to facilitate a one-stop strategy. With many teams opting for one stop during the race, Panasonic Toyota Racing had no chance to use pit strategy as a way to move up in position.

We continued making adjustments in each practice session, and the car improved steadily with every change. But, we were forced to accept the fact that we didn’t make quite enough of the right adjustments to reach our goal of having both cars qualify in the top 10 at an Italian GP where the gap between qualifying on pole and qualifying P19 was less than a second.
Having said that, it’s also true that we ran into some bad luck—that would be Timo’s hot lap during Q1. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) missed the second chicane and came back onto the course in front of Timo, who was on his final attack run. Held up by the car in front, Timo wasn’t able to find a clear space to make his attack.
This left only Jarno advancing to Q2; however, we couldn’t find the right conditions to make a satisfactory time attack in that session. We put Jarno on the harder compound (medium tires) for his first out lap during Q2. Jarno was P10 on the time charts at the point where all drivers had completed their first attack. Due to time issues, we put Jarno on the soft tires for his second time out. That was because the medium tires took three laps before they were warm enough for a hot lap. We planned on Jarno taking two hot laps in succession on the soft tires. The barest of slips occurred in the second chicane during the all-important second lap (where times should be fastest). Judging that we wouldn’t be able to improve on our best time in Sector 1, we had Jarno abandon the lap and come back into the pits. At that time, Jarno was still P10, but Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) improved on Jarno’s time at the very end of the session, preventing our driver from advancing to Q3. Only .07 seconds behind the P10 qualifier Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), the result was a blow to us all.

Not applying the lessons of the prior race; issues with positioning after the start

For the second race in a row, the team experienced issues with position off the starting grid. That the team did not take off enough downforce to be fast through Sector 1 was another factor in the race result. Panasonic Toyota Racing came away with no championship points for the third consecutive race.

Of course we wanted to finish the race in the points, but the fight for position after the start did not turn to our favor. As a result, we were deadlocked in position during the race. With all of the closest drivers on one-stop strategies, we really had no card to play.
We weren’t able to convert our strong pace at the high-speed Belgian Grand Prix into the same type of power at the ultra-high-speed Italian Grand Prix. This might have been due to our having more downforce on our cars than the other teams at Monza. This extra downforce cost us time in Sector 1, and prevented us from overtaking other cars during the race.
While we weren’t able to conclude the European leg of the F1 season on a high note at the Italian GP, the next race is the Singapore Grand Prix - a circuit to which we feel our car is particularly suited, as attested to our earning championship points last year. We especially want to put together a strong performance that we can take with us to Suzuka, the site of this year’s Japanese GP following one week after Singapore. We appreciate your continued support for Panasonic Toyota Racing.