2011 Italian Grand Prix Free Practice Report – 9 September
Friday ,9 September 2011
A high test demand on our free practice programme today in Monza. We needed to evaluate tyre performance for a slightly modified soft tyre against the medium, set wing level for the first Monza event with DRS and set our cooling and brake systems for the weekend.
Free practice objectives:
FP1 - Monza specific aero package validation, wing level set-up, general car and brake set-up
FP2 - Tyre comparison, suspension comparison, cooling set-up
Adrian Sutil (VJM04/04)
FP1: P5 1:26.550 23 laps
FP2: P12 1:25.496 39 laps
Adrian: “Two straightforward sessions for me. The car had a bit of oversteer this morning, especially in Parabolica, but the general feeling was pretty good straightaway. In the afternoon I felt quite happy with the aero balance but we will need to explore all the options this evening to make sure we make the right call on the downforce levels for the race. We didn’t look especially competitive on the timesheets today so it’s clear we need to think hard about how we approach tomorrow. In terms of tyres, things look okay. I did long runs on both the medium and soft compounds and they both lasted quite well, so should not cause us any worries.”
Paul Di Resta (VJM04/02)
FP1: Did Not Take Part
FP2: P13 1:25.683 37 laps
Paul: “Monza is not the easiest of tracks to get up to speed on. There are so many big stops on the brakes and it took me a while to find my rhythm this afternoon. Otherwise it was a typical Friday session without any dramas. We obviously concentrated on trying to find the best aero balance and worked on the stability of the car under braking. What we have is a good baseline and not too far away, but once we’ve been through all the data we should have a better idea of where we can improve for tomorrow. It’s also clear that we need to find some speed overnight because the times around the middle of the pack are very close.”
Nico Hulkenberg (VJM04/02)
FP1: P12 1:26.826 21 laps
FP2: Did Not Take Part
Nico: “It always takes a while to adjust to the low downforce levels, but to be honest I felt comfortable from the start of the session. The car was pretty stable and we didn’t have to work too much on the balance. Like everyone we used the first session to experiment with different wing levels to see the effect on laptime. As for the tyres, I only ran one set of the mediums and felt very positive because they held on quite well and the degradation levels were not too bad.”
Dominic Harlow, Circuit Engineering Director
"A high test demand on our free practice programme today in Monza. We needed to evaluate tyre performance for a slightly modified soft tyre against the medium, set wing level for the first Monza event with DRS and set our cooling and brake systems for the weekend. We also had suspension developments to compare along with some set-up work. We were able to complete the programme successfully and now have to trawl through the data this evening for the configuration we wish to take into qualifying. The resurfacing since last year seems to have reduced grip a bit in the final sector, but with ideal weather conditions I’m sure we can expect a little track improvement tomorrow and Sunday.”
Credit: Force India (www.forceindiaf1.com)
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