Thank you for your valued support over the weekend. AS the F1 World Championship enters May, we find ourselves at the Turkish Grand Prix–the fifth race of the 2008 season. Normally, the Turkish GP is held during the blistering summer heat of August, but the race was moved ahead three months this year, making for some cooler–than–usual conditions. Here is my report from the second race of the European Round, the Turkish Grand Prix.

Being a high-speed layout, Istanbul requires teams to lessen downforce to reach top speeds. Accordingly, Panasonic Toyota Racing left their new aero package at home, bringing tested and proven parts instead.

Similar downforce profiles foreshadow a replay of the Bahrain GP

The Istanbul Park Circuit is a combination of high-speed corners and long straights, much the same as the Spanish GP two weeks ago. But while the Catalunya Circuit is a medium-high downforce track, the circuit here is a medium to medium-high course, calling for a slightly lighter aerodynamics package. We brought a new aero package with a modified nose and front wing to the Spanish GP, but didn’t actually use it in the race. While we’re still waiting to use this new setup, we didns bring it to Istanbul due to the aero differences of the circuits. The Istanbul circuit is about the same downforce level as the Bahrain GP, where both of our cars were extremely competitive, so we’re looking for a repeat performance.

Finding good balance, despite a wet course and limited practice time

Just before the Friday morning practice, sweeper cars went over the course, spraying water in the process. Because of the water on the track,we stayed in the garage longer than we wanted. Once we started practice, both cars reported their satisfaction with car’s balance, getting us off to a good start for the weekend. A slight drizzle started to fall in the afternoon, again hampering practice time, but we were still able to conduct our program as planned, recording data from our cars running different downforce packages. It was a good day in the end, and we were looking forward to Saturday and Sunday.

Even so, we still had one unresolved issue. Of the two types of tires Bridgestone brought to the race, we were experiencing graining problems with the medium, or softer of the two compounds. The graining was caused by cooler–than–normal temperatures and damp conditions. The phenomenon wasn’t limited to our cars only; every team seemed to be struggling. We were fairly certain that the medium tires (better grip) would be used mainly during qualifying, but we knew that we had to clearly identify which of the two tires would give the better performance for Sunday’s race. Last year, we went with a medium, medium and hard tire order. The difference in season and other factors this year meant that we couldn’t just go with the same lineup. We still had to look over our data before formulating our race strategy.

Mechanical issues during qualifying left Timo in an unfortunate starting position for the race. The result was doubly regrettable given the positive performance of the car up to that point. Still, taking advantage of a strong machine and good pit strategy, Timo successfully moved up in position during the race.

Trouble for Timo during qualifying; Jarno fights balance problems to qualify P8

With the car’s solid performance levels on Friday, qualifying turned out to be a disappointment. During the last attack run of the second qualifying period, Timo Glock’s car suddenly developed a problem with the right front wheel in Corner 9, forcing Timo to abandon his hot lap. We gave the front right wheel a thorough check, and found an issue with the wheel installation system (drive peg). Timo had been quicker than Jarno Trulli during Q1. If he hadns had wheel trouble, Timo surely would have clocked in at a mid 1m26s lap time, easily passing through to Q3. It was truly a regrettable situation.

Jarno had a frustrating weekend in Turkey. Despite making detailed settings adjustments prior to qualifying, Jarno’s machine couldn’t provide better lap times. Despite the problems, Jarno demonstrated his veteran’s expertise to advance to Q3.

Meanwhile, Jarno’s car developed balance issues in the low-speed corners during Saturday morning–troubles we couldn’t fully address before the start of qualifying. We made some detailed adjustments to the camber, but we still couldn’t find the exact right setup. As a result, Jarno’s 1m26.695s attack run during Q1 was his fastest of the day, with each successive lap in Q2 slower than the previous. While he was able to still finish the second qualifying period at P10 to move on to Q3, we were on pins and needles the whole time.

Although the results didn’t show in qualifying, Timo’s car was performing well, and Jarno has continued to drive tenaciously in both qualifying and races throughout the whole season; we were definitely looking forward to Sunday’s race.

Confusion off the starting grid keeps Panasonic Toyota Racing out of the points for the first time in four races

After a disappointing qualifying, Sunday’s race was another letdown. Just slightly behind pace off the start, Jarno was caught up by Nick Heidfeld (BMW), who started diagonally to the rear at P9. Running on the inside of Heidfeld, Jarno was forced to slow down, allowing David Coulthard (Red Bull) to pass from directly behind at P10. Coulthard wobbled slightly in the next corner, forcing Jarno to hit the brakes yet again, and letting Nico Rosberg (Williams) pass by. The first lap of the race turned out to be a tough fight for position, with the scars on Jarno’s car after the race proving it. In the end, the positions after the end of the first lap determined much of how the race ended, which was a disappointment all around. A crash at any time certainly wouldn’t have been surprising, and I commend both of our drivers for completing the race.

During the race, Jarno was forced to brake by other cars in front, dropping position, and finishing P10 despite a tough performance. Timo was pleased with his speed, driving a solid race, and finally finishing P13. Unfortunately, his pace suffered for going down a lap.

Timo was on a one–stop strategy. One factor was that Timo was starting from the back half of the grid, but our strategy also took in the fact that the balance of his car was very stable, allowing competitive lap times even with a heavy fuel load. Our decision to start with the medium tire compound was based on better grip at the start. Even if we had some graining issues, we reasoned that being in the middle of traffic anyway, Timo’s lap times wouldn’t suffer. While the strategy itself came off well, getting the fuel rig out of the car during the first pit stop took just a fraction of a second longer than normal, preventing Timo from getting out ahead of Jensen Button (Honda), who was in the pits at the same time. Timo’s care demonstrated the best balance throughout the entire weekend, so the wheel trouble on Saturday was extremely unfortunate.

Our next race is the legendary Monaco Grand Prix. Prior to the race, we will be testing our new Monaco aero package at Paul Ricard. All of us here at Panasonic Toyota Racing thank you for your continued support.