Thank you for you support over the weekend. The European Round of the F1 World Championship is finally upon us. Here is my report from the Spanish Grand Prix, often referred to as the “second season opening” of the series.

Four new aero parts

Practice was a recurring cycle of battling understeer, and then battling the resulting oversteer after “fixing” the first problem. The team will continue to work on finding the right balance to take advantage of the new aero parts.

With more than a month under our collective belts since the start of the season, Panasonic Toyota Racing brought several new aero parts with us to the Spanish GP. The first was a new nose, outfitted with the new front wing we tested during free practice as the Bahrain GP. The second was a newly designed side pontoon, connecting the top crash wing installed in front of the side pontoon and the barge board. The third aero change was the introduction of a small triangular hole in the chimney duct. Last, but not least, we installed a rim blank in the rear wheels. With the exception of the side pontoon plate, we tested all of the changes during the joint testing session last week here at the Catalunya Circuit, site of the Spanish GP, so we know that the changes are effective. We tested the side pontoon plate in the wind tunnel to prove its worth, and we’re excited to see how all of the new aero parts will work in Barcelona.

While some parts were tested during the Bahrain GP, the Spanish GP saw the actual introduction of a new series of aero parts. In the end, the team returned to the older specification, waiting to use the new front wing and nose until a later date.

How to take the most advantage of the new aero parts?

Since there wasn’t much wind during Friday morning practice, we moved fairly smoothly through our setup work. But the wind picked up during the afternoon, preventing us from deciding on a satisfactory setting. In particular, this Catalunya Circuit has all types of corners–from low–speed to high-speed耀pread across the course, making it difficult to put together a car that is stable throughout an entire lap. Both Jarno (Trulli) and Timo (Glock) experienced understeer during the afternoon practice. Once we compensated for that, the drivers started to fight oversteer. We repeated that pattern several times during practice. While we could tell that the new aero parts themselves were providing positive effects, to be honest, it seemed to me that we were having difficulties putting together a setting that could best take advantage of the changes.

Heading into Saturday, we pored carefully over our practice data, feeling that it was more critical to adjust our car’s balance (including mechanical aspects) than to worry about changing anything with the aerodynamics.

Despite an error–free qualifying, Timo started P14 on the grid. He improved three positions to finish the race P11.

Jarno reaches the final qualifying period for a fourth consecutive race

Having verified our practice data from Friday, we learned that the combination of the new front wing and nose resulted in destabilizing the car’s balance under strong winds. So, despite the great potential of the new design, we decided to go back to the earlier package, rather than the one we tested on Friday.

But the older front wing package didn’t necessarily give us the balance we were looking for, either. With no help for it, we went into qualifying without an ideal setup. Furthermore, the Spanish GP qualifying turned out to be a very tough battle, with the top teams separated by only the smallest of margins, making for a somewhat unlucky day for Timo. Timo made it into the top 10 during the second qualifying period after the first round of attack laps, but our rivals all picked up the pace for their second runs, while Timo wasn’t able to improve his time, despite that lack of any noticeable mistakes.

Meanwhile, after all was said and done during the tough, competitive qualifying, Jarno secured P8 on the starting grid. Timo qualified P14, but coming so close to finishing in the points from P13 earlier at Bahrain, we were hoping for a double-points finish in Spain.

A costly communications error, but a strong performance to win points for a third consecutive races

The Spanish GP turned out to be a rough and tumble affair, with nine cars retiring early. Jarno stated that finding a setup took “quite a bit of doing,” but he was able to get everything that the car had to give during the race, finishing in the points for the third consecutive grand prix.

The Spanish GP marked the third consecutive points finish for Jarno, no thanks to a mistake on the part of the team during the third stint. Without the unfortunate error, Jarno would have been able to finish even higher. While we only planned for Jarno to make two pit stops, Jarno came in for a third stop because the team mixed up communications between Jarno and Timo, who needed to have his front wing replaced after coming into contact with David Coulthard (Red Bull). So, despite the fact that he was running at P6 with no need to pit–in, Jarno was called into the pits on lap 53 of the race. When we realized our mistake, we had Jarno drive through pit lane without stopping, but not before losing two on-track positions.

It is exactly when the top teams run into trouble that we have to perform perfectly. I can only say that the team is to blame for this foul–up. How did the mistake happen, and how will we prevent another one in the future? You can be sure that this will be the topic of many team discussions, and we will take this lesson to heart.

At this weekend’s Spanish GP, we weren able to take advantage of our new aero parts, so we didn’t race with our complete new package. I believe our car’s true performance is much greater than apparent during the race, and we look forward to showing the world, as you cheer us on in the next competition, at the Turkish Grand Prix.