Team reaction after day one in Monaco (part 2)

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi: “It went well and I am quite happy with what we achieved in the two sessions. We had no technical issues at all, which is very good, as it meant I did a lot of laps. The new parts we have put on the car here seem to be working well. There is a big difference in behaviour between the two types of tyre: at the moment, the Option seemed to develop quite a bit of degradation, although it might be less by the time we run again. It means we have quite a clear picture therefore of how to manage the tyres in the race. Anyway, here we have plenty of time to analyse what we need to do before Saturday, even if the rain at the end of the session meant it was harder to assess everything properly.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “It certainly felt different to last year, when I raced here in the World Series! It was a good testing day and even though I was stopped a bit before the end of my long stint in FP2 with a technical issue, I was able to complete a substantial number of laps. I think we know in what direction we must go to improve the car a bit more before qualifying and I should also pick up speed as I get more experience on the track. Both types of tyre suffered with degradation, but we have an idea what we can do on the car set-up side to deal with this.”

Williams Cosworth

Sam Michael, Technical Director: We spent today evaluating new aero components, We currently have only one new rear wing assembly so
Rubens ran it in the morning and Nico in the afternoon. The second will arrive in time for third practice and will stay on the cars for qualifying and the race. We covered a lot of set-up work with Rubens and Nico which has
given us plenty of data to study before Saturday. Our target for qualifying is to get both cars into the top ten.

Rubens Barrichello: The team brought some new parts for the car to Monaco. I had the new rear wing assembly this morning, Nico this afternoon. It looks promising and I hope to be a touch more competitive than some previous weekends. I’m looking forward to Saturday.

Nico Hulkenberg: Today was my first time in a Formula One car around Monaco so this morning was initially about getting some
mileage under my belt. The car feels ok; you can squeeze a lot out of it on one lap with the soft tyre. It also feels like we’ve made a gain with the new aero parts, the rear wing definitely provides more grip.

Sauber Ferrari

Both sessions on Thursday went without any technical problems. At the very end of the first 90-minutes free practice Kamui Kobayashi made contact with a barrier in the swimming pool chicane. The team repaired the C29 for session two. Pedro de la Rosa and Kobayashi were 16th and 17th in the second session, which finished just before a rain shower.

Pedro de la Rosa: “We covered all the mileage we wanted to, and made a lot of changes between the two sessions. We are heading in the right direction and have more ideas for Saturday. We can still make the car quicker, but we lose too much in the slow corners. Personally I started the first session quite carefully. The last time I was here was in 2002, so for me it was like learning a new track and I needed to get to know it again. For the second session I felt a lot more confident.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “It is really difficult to drive here and I had a few moments. I think we had a reasonable set up from the beginning, but still it was difficult to find grip in the slow corners, which is our main problem. We will work and try to improve the set up.”

James Key, Technical Director: “Like any first day at Monaco, the track was obviously slippery at the beginning and tricky, so we just allowed the drivers to do their laps and get a feel for the car and the
tyres. We did some set-up work in the morning and suffered a little bit from the grip level, but everyone had the same problem in that respect. In the afternoon we consolidated on what we found in the morning. We went through another programme on the prime tyres and then tried the option tyres, which worked pretty well by the time we ran them, because the track was in better condition. We then went on to some race simulation work. The race pace looked quite reasonable, however, there is work to do
on our qualifying pace. That’s what we will look at in detail for Saturday.”

Lotus Cosworth

Monaco Grand Prix, Thursday Practice saw Lotus Racing run a total of 122 laps around the tight turns of the Principality, and take another step forward in performance with Heikki Kovalainen finishing FP2 just over one second behind the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari.

Jody Egginton, Chief Race Engineer: “I think the session went quite well today. Heikki obviously put in a good performance, putting in some good times at the end and I think with the changing weather conditions we did a good job. Jarno was a little bit unlucky unfortunately with an engine issue which prevented him from completing the program but we completed a good deal of work and I think we’re now looking ok for Saturday.”

Jarno Trulli: “It was a bit frustrating today as I lost time in the garage this afternoon, and didn’t really get the chance to push as I’d have liked on track. The times were coming down but unfortunately in Monaco every single minute you lose being on track is going to cost you a little bit throughout the weekend. Obviously I’m experienced, so on the driver’s side it won’t affect me but with the car we still need to find the right setup and the right balance. Despite this it’s good to be here and to see Lotus Racing on track, as I know how much that means to a lot of the fans, and also to see that we continue to improve the car every time we get out on track.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “Overall it was a very good Thursday on track. We completed both sessions without any problems and managed to complete all our programs. As soon as I got in the car on Thursday morning it felt good and throughout the day we’ve been able to improve it step by step, so we’re definitely going in the right direction. We tried both compounds of tyres and they’re both working fine, and the long run with the soft tyres went without any problems, so that’s also pretty encouraging. We ended up pretty close to the car in front and anything can happen here so I’m looking forward to qualifying and the race. I’m really pleased with today’s performance and I think everyone in the team can be very happy with the job we’re doing.”

Mike Gascoyne: “Today was a reasonably good day. Jarno’s program this afternoon was cut short with an engine problem, although the engine in question was a high-mileage unit that reached the end of the line today. Heikki had no problems completing the planned program, with a good long run at the end, so overall the team had a good day. The cars are in good shape, and we’re pretty confident there’s more to come for Saturday.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

The principality of Monte Carlo was bathed in glorious sunlight this morning, on the first day of this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, a refreshing surprise as everyone had been expecting rain and low temperatures. Rain was still being predicted for early afternoon though, even if it seemed hard to believe when looking at the sky.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the first free practice session was relatively incident free and Timo Glock finished as fastest driver of the new teams. Lucas di Grassi also put in an excellent performance, trading times with Timo until finishing the session slightly early in order to make some changes to the gearbox.

Temperatures dropped for the second session, and the rain gradually began to put in an appearance. This compromised some of the team’s running on the faster option tyre, but both Lucas and Timo put in very competitive times.

The track temperature peaked at 41°C and the ambient high was 22°C.

Timo Glock: “Today was quite good with the car, no major problems. In Free Practice 2 we struggled a bit with the gearbox - the seamless shift wasn’t working in that session which was a bit of a shame, but in general, no problems and we found a good set-up. Let’s see what happens on Saturday and fight hard with Lotus again and see where we are.”

Lucas di Grassi: “It was a very good day, despite running with the old car. I felt comfortable straight away with the way the car was behaving here in Monaco. I think we are closer to the other teams than we were in Barcelona and in Free Practice 2 I was able to finish ahead of one of the Lotus cars and do a lot of laps. We had a small issue in Free Practice 1, no problems at all in Free Practice 2, so I’m very confident we can have a strong qualifying on Saturday. It’s a very important race here and we have to qualify well here and finish the race.”

Nick Wirth, Technical Director: “A very productive day for the team. Lucas experienced a gearbox issue this morning in P1 which shortened his first session, whereas Timo had a positive set of runs. In P2, Lucas made clear progress with his setup, but sadly got the timing of his new option tyre run to coincide precisely with the rain shower! Timo had a gearbox sensor failure at the beginning of P2 which degraded his shifts and lost him time all session, plus his option tyre running was also done during the start of the shower. Nevertheless, we have gathered a good amount of data on both cars, and we look forward to putting it all together, along with some new aero parts arriving tonight, when we start again Saturday.”

HRT F1 Cosworth

One week after the Spanish Grand Prix of Spain the HRT F1 Team (Hispania Racing) is back in action making its debut on the streets of Monte Carlo for the 68th Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Both Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna were in action in today’s two practice sessions covering 34 laps between them in the morning and further 47 laps in the afternoon.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “Our drivers paid a high price for a small mistake. But they will improve on Saturday. We did some good preparation work for the race, but we could not find the right balance to make the most of the tyres and achieve an optimal lap time. We have a good basis to build on ahead of qualifying.”

Karun Chandhok: “It felt really good to be back and drive an F1 car around the streets of Monaco. I really enjoy driving on this circuit. We managed to go through our program today quite successfully on both tyres. I managed to get up to speed quite quickly and maintained that through the sessions. There is still a gap to the other new teams so we have to work on that. We are lucky that we have the whole day off tomorrow so will be sitting with my engineers working hard to find the right balance for qualifying on Saturday.”

Bruno Senna: “I have been looking forward to driving here in Monaco again since my GP2 win a couple of years ago and here we are finally. Today we have been working very hard to make the car work as well as possible around this bumpy street circuit. It’s not easy to be honest. The areas of car development needed on the ’normal’ circuits we have raced on so far are magnified here in Monaco and the team has to work harder than ever to make the best of what we have got. I plan to get back on target on Saturday.”