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Friday, 5 October 2012
Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean conducted
setup evaluation runs and upgrade evaluations
during the first day of running at the fabulous
Suzuka circuit today. Under glorious skies both
cars ran reliably in the morning, however Kimi
suffered a coolant-leak induced KERS issue in
the afternoon meaning he missed most of the
session.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director -
Technical programme notes :
We ran updated front wings on both cars today.
In the morning we ran the DDRS Device on Kimi’s
car and an updated rear wing on Romain’s. In the
afternoon, both cars used non DDRS rear wings.
The Singapore-spec floor was evaluated on both
cars.
Pirelli’s hard compound tyre was used in the
morning, the hard and soft in the afternoon.
What we learned today :
We were not able to get ‘The Device’ functioning
at a sufficient level for it to be used over the
rest of the weekend.
We made good progress dialling in the new floor
as well as both the front and rear wings, which
will all remain on the car for the rest of the
weekend.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05
Free practice 1 : P13, 1:35.691, 22 laps
Free practice 2 : P14, 1:34.291, 12 laps
Kimi :
“We didn’t get much running because of the issue
with the KERS, but at least it happened today
and we got it fixed. It wasn’t ideal for helping
us find the best setup but there’s nothing you
can do about these things. Suzuka is not the
easiest place to get the car set up, but we
still have tomorrow’s practice before qualifying.
I think we have the potential to be nearer the
front than we have done in the last couple of
races.”
Romain Grosjean, E20-03
Free practice 1 : P14, 1:35.724, 21 laps
Free practice 2 : P6, 1:33.107, 35 laps
Romain :
“Not a bad day overall. The car felt much better
in the afternoon than it did this morning ;
we’re still not quite where we want to be but
the team has been working hard and hopefully
we’ll make a similar step forward tomorrow.
Suzuka is not an easy track on the car ; the
demands on the tyres are really high but the car
felt consistent with both compounds which is a
big positive. It’s hard to say if P6 is the kind
of position we’ll be in qualifying ; there are
definitely still a few tenths we can find so
let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
James Allison, Technical Director :
“We suffered a disrupted day with Kimi’s car but
despite that we’ve achieved a reasonable amount.
We evaluated ‘The Device’ in the morning but
were unable to make it switch effectively so we
won’t be using it for the rest of the weekend.
Romain suffered from understeer in the morning
and by the time we had put this right he had
already used up the best performance from his
tyres. In the afternoon, with a better set up,
he showed that there’s still a reasonable turn
of speed in the E20. We look in OK shape on both
the hard and soft rubber as well as on high fuel,
and we feel there is more to come from the car
tomorrow ahead of Qualifying.”
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Romain Grosjean will start the Japanese Grand
Prix from P5 on the grid with Kimi Räikkönen in
P8 after Saturday’s qualifying session at Suzuka.
Both cars progressed easily through to the top
10 Q3 session, however Kimi span on his fast
lap.
Kimi Räikkönen, E20-05. Q : P8, 1:32.208. FP3
: P12, 1:33.224
“I spun. I was on a good lap and I was pushing -
maybe a little too hard – and lost the rear.
It’s a shame as the car feels the best it has
all weekend. If the car’s good tomorrow we
should be able to move forwards. Let’s see what
happens.”
Romain Grosjean, E20-03. Q : P5, 1:31.898.
FP3 : P7 1:33.008
“Yesterday we had two tricky sessions, so to
have both cars in Q3 is a good recovery. We knew
it would be very tight in qualifying and I think
we could maybe have been one place higher with a
cleaner run through the first sector, but the
leaders were too quick today. We’re lacking a
little bit of downforce at the moment, but with
a few minor adjustments overnight and the right
strategy I think we can take home a good haul of
points tomorrow.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director :
“Not bad but we could have done better.”
How do you assess today’s qualifying performance
?
“We had the pace to get both cars further up the
grid. Kimi spun off on a new set of tyres which
hampered his progress and Romain didn’t have a
great first sector on his qualifying lap so he
could have maybe been a place higher, but
overall, it’s been a reasonable weekend so far.”
How are we looking for the race ?
“We’re comfortable with the E20’s performance on
a full fuel load and over long runs so we’re
looking forward to the race and hopeful that we
can gain positions from where we start. Suzuka
is pretty demanding on the tyres and we have
shown well in this area previously, so there’s
certainly potential.”
How do the different tyre compounds perform here
?
“We know these tyres pretty well. For qualifying
there was a reasonable difference in pace, but
for the race it’s likely to be more even.”
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Kimi Räikkönen came home a solid sixth,
maintaining his third position in the Drivers’
Championship, whilst Romain Grosjean finished a
classified 19th after retiring from 15th
position on track after an eventful Japanese
Grand Prix at Suzuka. The team remains fourth in
the Constructors’ Championship with increased
gaps of 103 points to Mercedes behind and 24 to
Ferrari ahead.
Both drivers started on Pirelli’s soft compound
tyres.
Kimi pitted for his first set of hard compound
tyres on lap 13, then his second on lap 30.
Romain pitted for hard compound tyres and a new
front wing on lap 1, served a ten second stop
and go penalty on lap 7, then took another set
of hards on lap 22.
Kimi Räikkönen, P6, E20-05
"Sixth wasn’t the result we were hoping for but
unfortunately we didn’t have the speed to do
better today. The start was very tight ; I was
alongside Fernando [Alonso] straight away and he
kept moving further across until there was
nowhere left go. We lost some time there and our
second pit stop wasn’t the best, so overall it
was quite a difficult race. The good thing is we
still managed to score points to stay in touch
in the championship."
Romain Grosjean, DNF / Classified 19th,
E20-03
"Ever since I came back in Singapore my priority
has been to be very cautious at the start, and I
was watching Sergio [Perez] on my left to make
sure there was no contact with him. There was
quite a big speed difference between me and Mark
[Webber] as I came into the first corner which
caught me by surprise and we collided. It was a
stupid mistake. Mark [Webber] came to see me
after the race and was obviously not happy, but
I apologised and we have to move on. We’ll sit
down and look at things again before the next
race to see what we can do to improve these
situations. In the last few laps of the race the
tyres were at the end of their life and we were
out of the points, so it made sense to retire.
Not a good day, but we have to look ahead to
Korea and a chance to make amends."
Eric Boullier, Team Principal
"Obviously, it hasn’t gone as well as we
expected. We could see in Singapore, when Romain
was back on track, that the other drivers were
putting some pressure on him at the start. Here
it was a little bit easier, but he made a small
mistake misjudging his pace compared with Mark,
which was a bit higher. I think he has made some
progress, but it’s unfortunate that this has
happened again in these circumstances. With Kimi,
the car’s pace was not as good as we were
expecting. Starting seventh we had higher hopes,
but if you don’t have the pace completely it
doesn’t work well. We couldn’t put everything
together in order to make his race more
successful and gain more places."
James Allison, Technical Director
"The best thing that can be said about this
event is that we scored some more points, but
it’s certainly not been the weekend we hoped for
on Friday, nor the one we expected after
Saturday. We’re disappointed that Kimi had to
race whilst looking in his mirrors rather than
attacking those ahead and we need to face the
fact that we need more performance from the E20
if we are to move up in the Constructors’
Championship rather than resting on our very
secure fourth position. It would have been much
better for us to have scored points with both
cars but sadly a first lap incident for Romain
put paid to that."
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team
Support Leader
"The combination of corners and wide open
throttle time at Suzuka makes the circuit a
challenge for the engines so we introduced new
units on both cars to maximise power and torque
available. We had a trouble-free event on this
front and will re-use the same engines in Korea.
Kimi has not had the best of weekends so getting
eight more points today is very positive and
keeps him third in the championship. We look
forward to Korea in just a week’s time." |
