Friday, March 14, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 9:53 AM
2008 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix: Friday Practice 2
After P1, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the loss of traction control hadn't hurt the drivers very much, after all there were only a few cases of drivers having small offs and getting the rear of the car sliding through the corners. However, in P2 there were numerous incidents and offs, and a couple of spins as well. The track temperature had risen since the morning's session, peaking at 48 degrees celcius (in the morning session the track temperature started at 34 and peaked at 39 degrees celcius). This meant that the track had a lot less grip. Also, the drivers were probably attacking the circuit a lot more than they were in the morning session.
Lewis Hamilton finished the session as the fastest man, with a time of 1:26.599 set in the closing stages of the session whilst on the softer option tyre. This time was well clear of the second place man - local hero Mark Webber - who set a time of 1:27.473 relatively early in the session, and who remained top of the timesheet for most of the session. Behind the top two, the order was Massa (who, during the session, had an incident at the quick right-hand turn 12 and half-spun his Ferrari), followed by the other McLaren of Kovalainen (whose only incident appeared to be running a little wide under braking to turn 3), followed by David Coulthard. Coulthard complained to his engineers that he was not getting the maximum on his first lap on new tyres and that he had done "bugger all" proper running, presumably due to traffic. After having suffered a mechanical problem in P1, he stopped out on track at the end of P2, and had to get a ride back to the pits in the Medical Car.
Kimi Raikkonen was 6th fastest with a time of 1:28.208 - the Finn had a relatively uneventful session - followed by Jarno Trulli, whose session came to a premature end when he got his left-side tyres on the grass under braking for turn 3, and spun his car into the gravel trap. Nico Rosberg was 8th fastest, and it looked as though the German was struggling for grip, running wide a few times and having to use a lot of opposite lock on occasions. In discussion with his engineer, he complained of understeer in right-hand corners, graining of the tyres, and rear brake locking. His engineer suggested that some of his problems might be due to the balance of the car, but also due to a problem with the differential, which may have been what sidelined Rosberg in the morning session.
Giancarlo Fisichella was 9th fastest - a solid performance from the Italian despite a spin at turn 7 and other little offs. The top ten was rounded out by Timo Glock, who dropped a few wheels off the track here and there, but still managed a 1:28.582.
Further back, the Hondas were 11th (Button) and 14th (Barrichello); the BMWs were 12th (Heidfeld) and 15th (Kubica); the Renaults were in 13th (Alonso) and 19th (Piquet); Nakajima was 16th, and appeared to be suffering similar handling issues as his teammate; Sutil was 17th - he had several offs, including at turn 7 and 9, and appeared to have suffered a broken headrest; The Toros Rosso cars were less impressive in P2 - they could only manage 18th (Vettel) and 20th (Bourdais). Bourdais managed only 11 (compared to his teammate's 40) laps due to a technical problem - he made a very slow tour of the circuit and he appeared to be stuck in gear (possibly hydraulic failure). Finally the two Super Aguris of Sato (who had numerous small offs) and Davidson brought up the rear. Davidson's time of 1:31.527 was almost 5 seconds off Hamilton's pace.
So, what can be learned from P2? Well, that the teams were trying different fuel and tyre strategies. All of the top runners seemed to experiment with the prime and option tyres. Indeed, Ron Dennis stated in a trackside interview that they were concentrating on tyres and trying to get the softer option tyres to last long enough. Something else that can be gleaned is the relative downforce levels of the cars. The Ferraris tended to be quickest through the speed traps - Massa was fastest at 305 kph - suggesting that they were running less downforce. This may have contributed to Massa's off. The McLarens were consistently the next fastest cars through the speed trap (Hamilton was 3rd fastest at 303 kph). Alonso and Webber were also fast (301 and 300 kph respectively).
So, it is difficult to tell who will be the quickest come race day just yet. One thing that was clear though - a lot of cars were struggling for grip, especially rear end grip under braking. One thing I noticed was that, with the new standard ECU, the gear downshifts sound quite harsh. It could be my imagination, but if it is, then it could be causing some rear tyre locking. In fact the only teams who didn't seem to suffer from this problem were Ferrari and McLaren who we know utilise a rear braking pressure modulation system to avoid this problem. It seems to be working well for them!
P2 Statistics
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (1:26.559)
Fastest Sector 1: Lewis Hamilton (28.7)
Fastest Sector 2: Lewis Hamilton (23.2)
Fastest Sector 3: Lewis Hamilton (34.6)
comparison to Raikkonen's P1 best lap:
1:26.461
Sector 1: 28.4
Sector 2: 23.3
Sector 3: 34.7
Average lap time (excluding drivers who set no time): 1:28.722
Standard deviation of lap time: 1.053 s
Smallest interval: P14 - P15: 0.011 s
Largest interval: P20 - P21: 1.058 s (of note: P1 - P2 0.914 s)
Time difference fastest - slowest: 4.968 s
2007 P2 Fastest lap: Felipe Massa (1:27.353)
2007 - 2008 difference: -0.794 s
Lewis Hamilton finished the session as the fastest man, with a time of 1:26.599 set in the closing stages of the session whilst on the softer option tyre. This time was well clear of the second place man - local hero Mark Webber - who set a time of 1:27.473 relatively early in the session, and who remained top of the timesheet for most of the session. Behind the top two, the order was Massa (who, during the session, had an incident at the quick right-hand turn 12 and half-spun his Ferrari), followed by the other McLaren of Kovalainen (whose only incident appeared to be running a little wide under braking to turn 3), followed by David Coulthard. Coulthard complained to his engineers that he was not getting the maximum on his first lap on new tyres and that he had done "bugger all" proper running, presumably due to traffic. After having suffered a mechanical problem in P1, he stopped out on track at the end of P2, and had to get a ride back to the pits in the Medical Car.
Kimi Raikkonen was 6th fastest with a time of 1:28.208 - the Finn had a relatively uneventful session - followed by Jarno Trulli, whose session came to a premature end when he got his left-side tyres on the grass under braking for turn 3, and spun his car into the gravel trap. Nico Rosberg was 8th fastest, and it looked as though the German was struggling for grip, running wide a few times and having to use a lot of opposite lock on occasions. In discussion with his engineer, he complained of understeer in right-hand corners, graining of the tyres, and rear brake locking. His engineer suggested that some of his problems might be due to the balance of the car, but also due to a problem with the differential, which may have been what sidelined Rosberg in the morning session.
Giancarlo Fisichella was 9th fastest - a solid performance from the Italian despite a spin at turn 7 and other little offs. The top ten was rounded out by Timo Glock, who dropped a few wheels off the track here and there, but still managed a 1:28.582.
Further back, the Hondas were 11th (Button) and 14th (Barrichello); the BMWs were 12th (Heidfeld) and 15th (Kubica); the Renaults were in 13th (Alonso) and 19th (Piquet); Nakajima was 16th, and appeared to be suffering similar handling issues as his teammate; Sutil was 17th - he had several offs, including at turn 7 and 9, and appeared to have suffered a broken headrest; The Toros Rosso cars were less impressive in P2 - they could only manage 18th (Vettel) and 20th (Bourdais). Bourdais managed only 11 (compared to his teammate's 40) laps due to a technical problem - he made a very slow tour of the circuit and he appeared to be stuck in gear (possibly hydraulic failure). Finally the two Super Aguris of Sato (who had numerous small offs) and Davidson brought up the rear. Davidson's time of 1:31.527 was almost 5 seconds off Hamilton's pace.
So, what can be learned from P2? Well, that the teams were trying different fuel and tyre strategies. All of the top runners seemed to experiment with the prime and option tyres. Indeed, Ron Dennis stated in a trackside interview that they were concentrating on tyres and trying to get the softer option tyres to last long enough. Something else that can be gleaned is the relative downforce levels of the cars. The Ferraris tended to be quickest through the speed traps - Massa was fastest at 305 kph - suggesting that they were running less downforce. This may have contributed to Massa's off. The McLarens were consistently the next fastest cars through the speed trap (Hamilton was 3rd fastest at 303 kph). Alonso and Webber were also fast (301 and 300 kph respectively).
So, it is difficult to tell who will be the quickest come race day just yet. One thing that was clear though - a lot of cars were struggling for grip, especially rear end grip under braking. One thing I noticed was that, with the new standard ECU, the gear downshifts sound quite harsh. It could be my imagination, but if it is, then it could be causing some rear tyre locking. In fact the only teams who didn't seem to suffer from this problem were Ferrari and McLaren who we know utilise a rear braking pressure modulation system to avoid this problem. It seems to be working well for them!
P2 Statistics
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (1:26.559)
Fastest Sector 1: Lewis Hamilton (28.7)
Fastest Sector 2: Lewis Hamilton (23.2)
Fastest Sector 3: Lewis Hamilton (34.6)
comparison to Raikkonen's P1 best lap:
1:26.461
Sector 1: 28.4
Sector 2: 23.3
Sector 3: 34.7
Average lap time (excluding drivers who set no time): 1:28.722
Standard deviation of lap time: 1.053 s
Smallest interval: P14 - P15: 0.011 s
Largest interval: P20 - P21: 1.058 s (of note: P1 - P2 0.914 s)
Time difference fastest - slowest: 4.968 s
2007 P2 Fastest lap: Felipe Massa (1:27.353)
2007 - 2008 difference: -0.794 s
Labels: Australia, Formula 1, Grand Prix
If the fonts on this page look blocky and naff, it's probably because you are using Internet Explorer, which currently does not display antialiased (cleartype) fonts consistently when alpha transparency is used. I suggest you upgrade to Safari, Camino, Opera, or Firefox. While you're at it, get a Mac.
