Hello, everyone, and thank you for visiting the official Panasonic Toyota Racing website. Takahashi here with a report on Friday and Saturday from the Hungarian Grand Prix.

• An aero package designed specifically for Hungary
The Hungaroring is the second slowest circuit after Monaco. In Monaco, we used a special aero packaged designed specifically for that course. We also have a package designed for Hungary that is somewhat different from the Monaco specification. First, we increased the number of roll hoop wings from one to three. We also made some changes to the rear wing, so this is basically a high downforce spec designed to match the characteristics of the Hungaroring.

For this race, we went ahead and changed out Jarno’s engine. When we came home to Cologne after the Hockenheim race last week, we took a good look at Jarno’s engine. What we found was a damaged pneumatic seal (which moves the valve). The seal failure caused our loss of pneumatic pressure, which resulted in the poor performance of the engine. Now, to actually get a look at the problem, we had to take apart the main section of the engine, which meant that we had to break the seal. Since we had to do that anyway, Jarno decided that he wanted to change the engine. As a result, Jarno will be racing on a fresh engine, while Ralf will be racing with an engine on its second race. (*Since Jarno didn’t make the checkered flag at the German GP, he won’t be assessed a 10-grid position penalty here in Hungary, even though we put in a new engine.)

As you no doubt know, the Hungaroring is a low-speed course, where there is no room for overtaking. In that sense, it is similar to the Monaco course, but there’s a big difference as well. That difference is the fuel effect. At Monaco, where the fuel effect is small, you have the choice to go with a one-stop strategy for the race. In Hungary, however, there is no such choice. The fuel effect here is such that we expect most teams to go with a three-stop strategy.

• Dealing with a bumpy track
Although we ended up in a good position after Friday’s practice, there was a lot going on behind the scenes in our camp. Ricardo’s car ran into a little trouble during both the morning and afternoon sessions on Friday, which forced us to change our program a bit. However, our regular drivers stepped in to perform part of the program that Ricardo was originally scheduled to perform, so in the end we were able to collect all the data we needed.

As expected, the track was slippery during Friday morning’s practice session. What was unexpected was how bumpy the track turned out to be—especially since the surface has been repaved. We tried a number of different setups to help improve our regular drivers’ ride over the bumpy surface. The sector between Turn 2 and Turn 5, and then again between Turn 12 and Turn 13, are particularly bumpy. The bumps cause the cars to jump during braking. To avoid this, you have to brake quite a bit earlier than you would want. If you’re even slightly late on the brakes, the car will jump, so that basically you’re braking in mid-air. This can lock the rear wheels, and can easily lead to a spinout. As a matter of fact, we saw that happen quite a bit during Friday’s practice sessions.

Here at Hungary, the cars feature a high downforce specification, incorporating three roll hoop wings.

• Zonta records the top time
As always, most of Ricardo’s time was devoted to tire evaluation. During the last part of morning practice on Friday, the pressure in his hydraulic system fell off, so he slowed going into the final corner. He got a push from some race officials, and made it back to pit road. We found that he had an oil leak related to his differential, but since there wasn’t any time to repair it in the interval between Session 1 and Session 2, we just decided to change out the rear end of his car.

The track surface improved quite a bit during afternoon practice. Ricardo was able to get in some long runs, but this time his electrical system temperature started to get too hot, so he had to sit in the garage for a while. It seems that some paper had become lodged in the cooling duct, causing the overheating.

For the regular drivers, we continued to work on ‘bump countermeasures,’ while they did some tire performance checks and long runs for us. With Ricardo’s car trouble, Jarno and Ralf divided up the task of testing the prime and option tires. Thanks to their help, we were still able to collect enough data to make our decisions.

Even though we had a little trouble here and there, I think all in all we had a good first day for a Friday. Zonta recorded the fastest lap time of the day, but we certainly can’t let our guard down—we have no idea how much fuel the other cars were running with. We used a maximum downforce aero package, which limited our top speed severely, but on the other hand we were very fast through the low-speed corners in Turns 2 and 3. I think the differences in downforce among the teams were pretty obvious looking at the sector times. Our plan is to wait to determine our final downforce setup until just before qualifying, after we have a good look at the relative differences among the teams, as well as tire degradation. At Hungaroring it’s almost impossible to overtake, so in my opinion the more downforce, the better.

• Overcoming trouble before qualifying
During Practice 3 Saturday morning our drivers came back and told us they didn’t have any grip. Accordingly, we ran the session focusing mainly on improving mechanical grip in the cars. Practice 3 was very slippery, so we waited in the garage until the final half of the session. By Practice 4 the track surface had built up, so we got out on the course right from the start, working on adjusting our setup.

Ralf had an uneventful program, but Jarno’s fuel pressure dropped off suddenly in Turn 4, stopping his car in its tracks. After investigation, we discovered that the fuel connector between the engine and chassis had come apart, so we connected it back up and sent Jarno out to qualify. Jarno’s trouble meant that he didn’t have a chance to put on a new set of tires and check out his car’s balance.

• Both cars capture ‘clean grid’ starting positions
Jarno was scheduled seventh to make his attack run, so we figured the track would still be pretty slippery. We made a slight adjustment to the angle of this front wing to add some downforce. This turned out to be a great decision, since Jarno had good balance throughout his attack run. Considering that he was qualifying so early in the day, I’d say he drove a perfect qualifying lap.

Ralf was scheduled as the 15th driver to make a flying lap, so the road surface was in pretty good condition when it was his turn. His car had a slight oversteer tendency during the first half of his run, but aside from that he made no mistakes, and his flying lap was as near to perfect as you could get. Before qualifying, I hoped that we would land somewhere in the top six. Both cars hit the times we were looking for, and we qualified 3rd and 5th—odd-numbered grid positions. This means we’ll be starting on the ‘clean’ side of the track, where the conditions are better; I have some really high expectations for our start tomorrow. Alonso, who made his flying lap last of all, was running quick enough to qualify P2. If he had, then we would have been starting P4 and P6. Considering the track surface, though, I think P5 and P7 would be better than P4 and P6, given the choice.

At any rate, this is our first real chance in a while to go after the podium. You can bet that tomorrow we’ll be pulling out all the stops to get there.

Be sure to root for us during the race. I’ll see you here again tomorrow with another Keizo Takahashi Report afterward. Until then…