Thank you for your support over the weekend. This year, the European GP was held for the first time ever in Valencia, Spain. The Valencia Street Circuit is a newly completed city street course, and provided the backdrop for a dramatic and exciting race. Here is my report from the European Grand Prix.

With a relative lack of grip, the Valencia Street Circuit brought to mind the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal. Valencia, however, presents a much wider track. The medium downforce level at Valencia was quite similar to that of Bahrain.

Layout resembles Montreal; required downforce levels resemble Bahrain

Completed just last month, the Valencia Street Circuit presented an unfamiliar challenge to every F1 team. My impression after walking the course for the first time was that Valencia was very similar to the Montreal course, another city street circuit. But Valencia presented unexpectedly large escape zones and felt wider overall than Montreal.

Our simulations indicated a top speed of around 310km/h, with a required downforce level on par with the circuit in Bahrain. Our simulation results showed a lap time of about 1m 40s, but we predicted that actual times would be a bit faster after some rubber had been laid down on the surface.

Timo Glock secured a podium finish at the Hungarian GP–a high downforce circuit–but the medium level of downforce at Valencia called for a different style of driving. Our highest priority for the weekend was to have each of our cars finish in the points.

Trouble before Saturday’s qualifying left Jarno no chance to confirm the feel of his setup. Going more–or–less blindly into qualifying, Jarno nevertheless kept pace with the top teams, turning in superb lap times. It was again a demonstration of Jarno’s caliber as a veteran race driver.

Collecting a wealth of on–course data with both cars completing different programs throughout trouble–free practice sessions

Since this was the first–ever F1 race at the circuit, our objective during Friday’s free practice was to get in as many laps as possible. The more mileage on the cars, the more data we would be able to collect, and the more on–circuit experience for the drivers. In that sense, we had a great start to the weekend, moving through both practice sessions without any sign of trouble. And despite the fact that we hadn’t dialed in our setup as of the end of morning practice, the balance on Timo’s car wasn’t bad at all.

After the morning session, we changed the aero setup for both drivers, efficiently collecting data for further analysis. As a result of our changes, Jarno (Trulli) began to experience some issues with handling. Specifically, the car was tending to a slight oversteer, and the feel of the braking was not where Jarno wanted it to be. But since we had already found the right settings for Timo, we planned to comb through our data after the session, utilizing Timo’s setup in Jarno’s car. Accordingly, we weren’t overly concerned about Jarno’s place on the time sheets at that stage in the weekend.

Timo again turned in a podium–worthy performance during the weekend, but was hampered by health and tire issues during qualifying that prevented him from reaching Q3. Timo skillfully moved through the on–course trouble after the start of the race to gain position on track.

A sudden loss of speed for Timo; Jarno experiences trouble, too

My honest reaction is that I was disappointed with our performance in qualifying. Considering how well things progressed during Friday free practice, I had expected both of our cars to find themselves squarely in the middle of the top ten after qualifying.

Timo’s car performed without a hitch during Q1, but the car suddenly refused to perform as ordered during Q2, keeping Timo from advancing to the final qualifying period. More specifically, the car didn’t perform as expected under heavy braking in Corner 8 just before the bridge on one attack lap, and on another, the car again proved troublesome under heavy braking in Corner 12 following the long straight. If either of the attack runs had been without issue, I am sure we would have advanced to the final qualifying period.

Meanwhile, the pump supplying oil to the gearbox on Jarno’s car malfunctioned during Saturday morning practice, leaving Jarno with only two completed laps during the session. Since we had changed Jarno’s settings from the day before, our plan was to confirm the changes before going into qualifying, but we were forced to put Jarno’s car into the fire of qualifying without being able to verify the effects of our work. Nevertheless, Jarno turned in a splendid performance, staying near the front during both Q1 and Q2, successfully moving on to the final qualifying period. Some slight issues were experienced in Sector 2 during a time attack in the final qualifying period, preventing Jarno from improving on his best times of the day. Considering all of the relevant factors, we decided to call off the rest of the time attack, bringing Jarno into the garage to conserve fuel.

In short, it was an extremely frustrating day of qualifying for the team. But the race was yet to be run, and we had a very animated discussion during our post-qualifying meeting about what pit strategies we could implement to move up in position during the race.

The combination of Jarno’s determined racing, Timo’s speed, and team strategy resulted in the third double–points finish of the season. Despite a reputation for not being particularly strong on medium–downforce circuits, Panasonic Toyota Racing proved that they could compete with the top teams under any circumstances.

An entire team effort to win back positions lost in qualifying, and secure a double–points finish

Both of our cars got off to a strong start in the race. This was the first factor in our being able to secure a good result at the end. Timo was able to wind through the confusion of the first lap to move up three positions before coming back to the control line, opening up a new range of strategies for us. We started Timo’s car with enough fuel for a one–stop strategy, but allowed for a two-stop strategy depending on the performance of the tires.

But Timo’s race pace was every bit as fast as the two–stop cars, so ultimately we stayed with our strategy of gaining position through a one–stop race.

Having made it to the final period of qualifying on Saturday, the rules required Jarno to start Sunday’s race with the fuel left on board after qualifying. As such, we adopted a two–stop strategy for his race. Jarno protected his starting position off the line, chasing Vettel (Toro Rosso) ahead of him, and easily gaining position with the extra two laps of fuel we had on board compared to the other two-stop cars.

Even though Saturday’s qualifying was a disappointment, we were able to come together as a team on Sunday to overcome our disadvantage and win championship points. This marks the third time this season that we have had both cars win championship points, but I have to say that the double–points finish in the European GP was the result of an entire team effort.