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14 Oct,2008 (Tue)

Thank you, as always, for your support over the weekend. The 16th race of the 2008 F1 season was held at the Fuji Speedway–home circuit to the Panasonic Toyota Racing team. Last year’s rainy weather resulted in a misfire of our Fuji Special setup, but this year the weather remained dry, and the Japanese Grand Prix was conducted under clear autumn skies. Here is my report from the F1 Japanese Grand Prix, held for the second consecutive year at the Fuji Speedway.

With an aero spec similar to our successful setup at Magny–Cours, we came to Japan looking for a podium finish

The Fuji Speedway presents significantly different characteristics between the first, middle and last sections. The key point for this race is how to match aerodynamic downforce to the conditions. Of course we run simulations prior to heading to the races, but the actual grand prix presents many unknown elements, including course conditions and changing weather. This means that final adjustments have to be performed on location at the circuit. We brought several different types of aero parts with us to Fuji Speedway, planning to use them in several different combinations during Friday practice leading up to qualifying and the race.

While we didn’t put together a "Fuji Special" like we did last year, the downforce levels are very close to what we raced with at Magny–Cours (French Grand Prix) where Jarno (Trulli) captured a podium finish. As such, we felt the compatibility between the two would be fairly good. Being the second year that the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Fuji Speedway, everyone on the team shared a common goal to put everything on the line for a podium finish here.

A good start as Timo marks the best time on Friday Afternoon

At the end of the final Friday practice, the Panasonic Toyota Racing car was at the top of the timing monitors. To be honest, we were a bit surprised by this result, since it didn't come from any particular effort on our part to score a top time.

As planned, we tested several different aero packages during Friday morning free practice. We had a discussion about downforce, and then changed our setup based on our conclusions before heading into Friday’s afternoon practice session. We worked through our planned program, conducting long runs in both morning and afternoon sessions. Immediately after the start of the afternoon session, Jarno and Timo (Glock) were driving very strong, reflecting our new changes, and letting us know that we were heading in the right direction.

Since Timo marked his top time only 30 minutes into the session, we expected that someone would record a faster lap later in the session as track conditions improved. Even so, we didn’t read too much into our times. After all, this was still Friday. The real war had yet to be fought. In any event, it’s never a disappointment to have one of your drivers on the top of the time sheet. But we were still addressing some issues with our setup, so we planned to take a careful look at our data before Saturday.

Struggling with balance on a full tank; given our performance during the weekend, qualifying P7 and P8 was a disappointment

We didn’t make any significant mistakes, and our setup was fine. While getting both cars through to the final qualifying period (a feat we could not accomplish last year) was certainly satisfying, we were honestly looking for a better spot on the starting grid than P7 and P8, given our strong performance during Friday and Saturday practices.

During Q2, where teams were performing attack laps on nearly empty fuel tanks, Jarno and Timo ranked P4 and P5, respectively, pressing the Ferrari and McLaren cars, and leading us to look for a slightly higher result in Q3. In the end, our qualifying results were not wholly satisfactory. Timo’s car was in good form during Q1, while Jarno was fighting a slight understeer in the high–speed corners. After a few adjustments, both cars were trouble–free during Q2.

During the qualifying period, where the remaining teams have to load race fuel levels before heading out onto the circuit, the change in weight resulted in a different balance to our car, preventing Jarno and Timo from hitting top speeds. But for this issue, we probably would have qualified two spots higher, given that we were behind the qualifiers in the middle of the top ten by the merest of margins.

But I think we did everything that could have been expected, and we looked forward to the race, feeling that we had enough feedback to give us confidence that we could fight for a podium finish from where we were on the starting grid.

Oversteer prevents overtaking; a frustrating race, despite winning championship points

Even though Ferrari and McLaren were the two teams fighting for the title, the confusion off the starting grid left an opening. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take home–team advantage of the opportunity. Our goal was to have both cars finish in the points, but seat problems with Timo’s car forced him to retire from the race early. We still don’t know the reason for the trouble, but Timo mentioned that the car actually left contact with the track after driving over the curb coming out of Turn 6 immediately prior to the issue. Perhaps this resulted in an excessive strain on the car. Since both car and driver had been performing so well up to that point in the weekend, this was a particularly disappointing result for Timo in his first home GP.

Meanwhile, I think Jarno performed very well. In his inimitable style, he picked his way through the Turn 1 confusion at the start of the race, rising up to P4. But the ambient and track temperatures at Fuji Speedway on Sunday were quite a bit lower than we anticipated, working to our disadvantage. During the first stint, Jarno suffered from oversteer due to a lack of grip in the rear tires. We lowered the angle of the front wing slightly during Jarno’s first pit stop to resolve the issue. Despite our adjustment, we weren’t able to widen the gap with Nelson Piquet, Jr. (Renault), losing one position to after the second pit stop, and ultimately finishing the race at P5.

Unable to meet the expectations of our fans, the result was disappointing to us, but at least we were able to win championship points with one of our cars. We lost a few points to Renault in the Constructors’ Championship, but the season isn’t over yet. With two races left, we will be fighting with all of our strength to the finish. Please continue to cheer us on!

Noritoshi Arai at the Fuji Speedway. Mr. Arai was busy responding to media requests as Panasonic Toyota Racing came to the Japanese Grand Prix in a much stronger position than last year. Despite missing a podium finish, Jarno secured a P5 result–the best for Panasonic Toyota Racing at a Japanese Grand Prix event. With two races left, the team will fight with all of their might to capture fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship!