Dominic Harlow Q&A
Sunday ,31 July 2011
“Our performance has been quite consistent”
Force India had another good day in Hungary on Saturday as Adrian Sutil qualified eighth and Paul Di Resta 11th. From those positions, and with a lot of action expected at the front, strong points finishes have to be the target. We asked Director of Circuit Engineering, Dominic Harlow, for the story of the weekend so far.
Are you pleased to come from Germany to a very different track and still have a car qualify well inside the top 10?
“Yes, we’re very pleased. From the practice sessions to the end of qualifying our performance has been quite consistent, and around the sort of area we hoped for. And it’s a repeat of our performance at the Nurburgring last week. So to get some more points in the race is the target.”
How have the two days gone?
“Despite the fact that we’ve had no rain, it’s been quite affected by the weather conditions. The first session wasn’t too bad, but the grip was quite low. Things got a little bit better in the afternoon. The wind in FP3 made things a little bit tricky and then in qualifying we again saw a change for the better, as we had a little more cloud cover, and the temperature fell. The tyres are quite on the edge, that’s been the main challenge.”
How did the wind affect things?
“We had a strong tailwind, 20-30km/h through the middle sector, which cost downforce, and a headwind on the pit straight, which affects straightline speed.”
Adrian did a great job to take eighth, but Paul only just missed Q3.
“It was just a couple of corners, Turns 12 and 13, that didn’t quite work out for him. That was one of the most difficult parts of the circuit – that final sequence for some reason is a little bit unpredictable in terms of the grip we have.”
Some teams have been careful to preserve supersoft tyres. What kind of race are we going to see?
“The teams that have saved tyres will I suspect be looking at three stops, and perhaps others are leaning more towards a two-stop. It could go either way, depending on the track temperature, how the race spreads out, who ends up where in the early laps. The pace at the beginning will probably go a long way to determine how far you go on your first set.”
Is it all about protecting the rear tyres?
“In terms of the degradation, they are setting the performance level. The wear limitation is actually quite close. On a two-stopper you need to think about the whole car. On a three-stop the rears will be the ones that go away.”
We saw some unusual strategies in Germany with cars pitting right at the end. Are we likely to see anything like that?
“No, I think it’s more normal! The tyres are about a second apart, maybe a fraction more. But once you’re talking about a new set and a used set, between the option and the prime, it will fall into a more normal window.”
Credit: Force India (www.forceindiaf1.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment