Q&A with Laurent Mekies, Toro Rosso Chief Engineer

When you compete in races known as “Grand Prix,” it’s useful to have someone in
your team who understands what those two words mean, even if this is not our French
Chief Engineer’s main role. Laurent Mekies is well qualified for the job, with a Masters
degree in Automotive Engineering obtained in Paris, which included a final year at the
UK’s Loughborough University, something of a hotbed for race engineers in Britain.
Laurent’s entire working life has been spent trackside, first with a Formula 3 team,
before eventually tasting F1 with the Arrows team in 2001. A year later he joined
Minardi as a race engineer and has been in Faenza ever since, taking on the role of
Chief Engineer when Scuderia Toro Rosso was born.

How will the new rules affect what we see on track?

There is the KERS obviously which is probably the most important one, there is the
moveable rear wing and there are some changes in the aero regulations in general. I
think we have to remember that we are coming from an exceptional season as guys
were fighting for the championship until the very last race. I think for the fans everyone
delivered a very good show, so you are not aiming at having something radically
different. The moveable rear wing and the KERS should help boost the number of
overtaking moves you will see during the season which is good for the spectacle. I
think we are starting from a very good base in terms of how good the show was for the
spectators in 2010.

Tell us more about the KERS

Engineering-wise it’s a great challenge. We understand that it is also the direction that
the general automotive industry is taking, with electric engines and recoverable energy.
So for us it’s an excellent challenge. The fact our KERS comes from Ferrari is also a
big advantage as Ferrari was one of the very few teams that was using KERS two
years ago, so obviously we will benefit from their experience in that field. They have
improved it further, therefore we are looking forward to using the KERS and optimising
the system.

The drivers are going to be very busy in the cockpit...

The workload for the driver, with the KERS and the rear wing will be increased. There
is a lot to do, both in terms of how well we charge the system while the car is braking
and in terms of how well we will use the power coming out of the corners or while
attempting an overtaking manoeuvre. The number of situations that can be tackled with
the system is very high and it is going to be a big part of the challenge for the race
engineers and also for the drivers. The drivers are going to be very busy, both in trying
to release the energy at what we think is the best moment for lap time optimisation or
while trying to do an overtaking manoeuvre and, on top of that, he will be busy in the
braking phase, when he has to recharge the KERS, so this will have an influence on
the balance of the car during the braking phase and it is something he will be able to
play with during the race, trying to rebalance the degradation of the tyres, to rebalance
the fuel load on the car. He will also have to deal with the amount of energy he wants
to recover under braking. So it’s going to be very challenging for the crews and the
drivers.

How will you manage this situation from the pits, running the KERS and the rear
wing?

At the moment we are in the simulation phase, so we are trying to simulate all the
possible combinations and try to define what we think is the optimum for every type of
condition. Once this is done, we will advise our drivers on what we believe is the best way to use the system and we will then tackle the reality of this when we are at the
track.

What are your expectations for 2011?

I think that as a competitor we certainly want to keep our position ahead of the three
new teams. That will be the first target to keep ahead of these three in performance
terms. So we are hoping to raise our level to do that. The next target is the guys we
were fighting with towards the end of the last season, very good teams like Sauber,
Williams and Force India. It will be a case of seeing which of these teams will have
produced the best interpretation to suit the rules.

What is the best thing about Toro Rosso?

The best thing here is the atmosphere. When I started here it was actually a question
for me, why in some teams people would not leave, because in F1 there is always
quite a high turnaround and there is much less of that here. Why? It is down to the
atmosphere as there is a very strong team-spirit and people help each other. It creates
a very strong bond between the guys and we are all enjoying doing what we do. In the
end, we are all motor racing fans first before being mechanics or engineers and that’s
what creates the great spirit here.