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Button Wins Again As Raikkonen’s Back Luck Returns in Spain

jemela — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:19:40 +0000

Full review to follow...

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;
66 laps; 307.104km;

Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h37:19.202
 2.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    13.056
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    13.924
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    18.941
 5.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    43.166
 6.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    50.827
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    52.312
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:05.211
 9.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     1 lap
10.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Barrichello, 1:22.762

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    18
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    8
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    1
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)    1

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Spanish GP 2009 - Bridgestone Race Day Press Release

jemela — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:13:22 +0000

Brawn GP driver Jenson Button used a two stop, soft – soft – hard tyre strategy to win a highly tactical Spanish Grand Prix in hot and sunny conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

Button finished thirteen seconds ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who used a three stop, soft – soft – soft – hard tyre strategy. The final podium position went to Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber who used the same strategy as Button for third.

Bridgestone’s soft tyre proved to be the superior race tyre here, giving a faster lap time than the hard, and giving good consistency too.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport
“Congratulations to Jenson Button for his win and Brawn GP for their 1-2. It is satisfying to see an independent team such as Brawn GP perform so well and it is good to watch Jenson showing his talents at the front of the field. Spain is a very important market for Bridgestone, so to start the European season with such a strong race was very rewarding for us. Lap times were very close and we saw good action on track.”

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
“Today was a very exciting race in terms of tyre strategy. It was clear all weekend that the soft tyre was a superior race tyre to the hard, so the strategy had to maximise time on the soft. We saw a variety of two and three stops take place so it was a race we had to watch closely to see who would win. Congratulations to Jenson, whose two stop strategy worked best to win the race and Rubens for a solid second place. Mark Webber also drove very well. Most drivers found the soft tyre to be very durable as well as quicker than the hard tyre. Some drivers experienced rear tyre degradation which is what we would expect with the current cars, but overall it was a strong tyre performance with no particular issues.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Spanish GP 2009 - Ferrari Race Day Press Release

jemela — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:56:26 +0000

Kimi Raikkonen:
“I am very unhappy because I could have finished in the points. Unfortunately, I had a hydraulic problem linked to the control of the accelerator which meant I had to retire. At the start I managed to make up a few places but then, I found myself behind Heidfeld’s BMW. The car is better, but we must fix these reliability problems. Obviously, when you have to make up ground you can end up making avoidable errors, as has happened to us in this first part of the season, but that doesn’t mean to say the team has lost its way. We are the same people who over the past two years have won three world titles out of the four available.”

Felipe Massa:
“It’s a real shame to have lost two places in the final stages, even if we’ve finally made it to the scoreboard. We knew we couldn’t match the pace of the Brawns but we had managed to get ahead of the Red Bulls and, but for the fuel problem, I could have certainly stayed ahead of Vettel and Alonso. The final part of the race was a pain. I was already struggling on the harder tyres and then I had to try and save fuel as much as possible, while at the same time staying ahead of Vettel. Then the team told that if I wanted to make it to the finish, I would have to let Vettel by and slow down a lot: if I had made another pit stop I would have finished out of the points. Today, the car’s pace on the softer tyre was reasonably good, even if we’re still lacking a few tenths, but at least we are back to fighting for the top places.”

Chris Dyer:
“The most important thing this weekend is that the car performance is much improved compared to the previous races. Today we were capable of fighting with the best and we had a great chance of finishing on the podium. On the downside, we can only be disappointed about our reliability and the running of our on-track operation. After what happened in qualifying yesterday, Kimi had to retire because of a problem with the hydraulics used to control the accelerator. On Felipe’s car, the front left wheel fairing broke and at both pit stops we had a refueling problem, the cause of which we have yet to find out. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. We are all very unhappy for what happened and lament the fact that so much work from the team to improve car performance was not adequately rewarded in the final result.”

Stefano Domenicali:
“We can take some satisfaction from this weekend, but at the same time, it has thrown up further concerns. On the one hand we saw that the effort expended in recent weeks has born fruit in terms of improving the performance level of the car. Both in yesterday’s qualifying and today, Felipe was competitive at the highest level, as was confirmed on the clock: it’s not by luck that we got the third fastest time in the race, which would have been far out of our reach in previous races this year. Once again, the downside comes from the reliability side. Again today, we had problems which forced Kimi to retire and cost Felipe two places in the final stages, having also robbed him of the chance of getting to the podium, which would have been well deserved. This is unacceptable for a team like Ferrari: we must all react to get back to our usual standard, as indeed we have partially managed on the performance side. There is much to do on all fronts and we will tackle it with our usual absolute determination.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Spanish GP 2009 -Ferrari Saturday Press Release

jemela — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:43:54 +0000

Kimi Raikkonen:

“We made a stupid mistake. It’s a real shame because the car was much better than the one we had in the previous races and we had every chance of getting a good result. I didn’t get any particularly good laps on my only run in Q1, but we thought my best time would be enough to make it to Q2 and so I stayed in the garage. There’s no point in saying whose fault it was, because we can’t do anything about it now. I certainly wasn’t keen on doing another run as I was thinking of saving a set of new soft tyres for Q3 and the team reckoned we could make it. Tomorrow’s race will be tough and we will try and make the best of the situation. The F60 has improved, maybe not yet to the level of the best, but we’re definitely getting closer.”

Felipe Massa:
“We demonstrated that the car has improved and is much more competitive than at the other races. I am happy to be back at the front end in qualifying and the credit for that goes to everyone at the Scuderia, who have worked day and night these past weeks to get so many new elements on track so quickly. There is still a long way to go, but we are working in the right direction which is a good sign for the future. From fourth on the grid, my aim is to fight for a podium finish. At the start, the KERS could be very handy in helping me make up some places and then we know we can count on running a good race pace. I feel more comfortable at the wheel: the car is more stable and doesn’t slide so much everywhere as it did in the past.”

Chris Dyer:
“We have worked so hard to bring new components here for the F60 and the result of those efforts was confirmed today by Felipe’s performance. Unfortunately, we were unable to fully exploit this improvement, because we made a serious mistake in our evaluation of Q1, believing that Kimi’s time would have been good enough to get him through to the next stage. It was a serious error which is really regrettable. We will try to make up for it tomorrow in a race which he will start from way down the order. Felipe is on a good strategy and although we wait to see the fuel levels of the other drivers, we can aspire to a podium finish. As usual, reliability will be the number one priority.”

Stefano Domenicali:
“A day of varying fortunes. On the one hand there’s the satisfaction of Felipe’s result and on the other, disappointment for Kimi’s. Felipe’s showing in qualifying confirms that all the work of the past few weeks aimed at improving the car’s performance is going in the right direction. However, that can only add to the disappointment of how things went in terms of managing his team-mate’s session. We had the potential to get both cars into the top three rows and we only got it half right. Tomorrow, we can expect a long and difficult race, as usual in fact. Felipe has a chance to do well, while Kimi will have to try and climb up the order in the hope of making it into the points.”

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:20.707  1:20.192  1:20.527
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.715  1:20.220  1:20.660
 3.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:20.808  1:19.954  1:20.762
 4.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:20.484  1:20.149  1:20.934
 5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.689  1:20.007  1:21.049
 6.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:20.877  1:20.107  1:21.247
 7.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:21.189  1:20.420  1:21.254
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:21.186  1:20.509  1:21.392
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.745  1:20.256  1:22.558
10.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:20.931  1:20.408  1:22.685
11.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.818  1:20.531
12.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:21.128  1:20.604
13.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.095  1:20.676
14.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:20.991  1:20.805
15.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.033  1:21.067
16.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:21.291
17.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.300
18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.675
19.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.742
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:22.204

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Spanish GP 2009 - Ferrari Friday Press Release

jemela — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:08:50 +0000

One hundred and ten laps completed by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro over the two Friday free practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix: 60 for Kimi Raikkonen and 50 for Felipe Massa. “We had a very busy day: having so many new parts on the F60, the work sheet was full and we managed to complete it in its entirety,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “It was important to be able to work without major reliability problems on an aero package which is pretty much making its track debut today. We managed it and that’s definitely a positive thing when evaluating the day. As for performance, it is always difficult to draw conclusions. We have certainly made progress, but how much when compared to the competition we will only find out as the weekend continues.”

Kimi Raikkonen:
“We have definitely made a step forward in performance terms on the car: you can feel a greater level of aerodynamic downforce and that’s what we needed. Sure, it’s Friday and it’s always difficult to draw conclusions, but the feeling is that we have closed the gap to the top cars. Here, just as at the last race, the harder tyre is a bit difficult, while on the softer one, we’re reasonably good. Tomorrow morning, we’ll work on qualifying, given that today we concentrated on race preparation. All in all, I am happy with how things went today.”

Felipe Massa:
“We have done a good job over the past weeks and the car has improved, but of course, the others haven’t been standing around with their hands in their pockets. As from tomorrow, we will see if we have managed to move up the order, because today’s classification is difficult to interpret and I reckon it doesn’t represent the true pecking order. We worked towards Sunday’s race. On my final run I had traffic and that cost me a bit of time, but what matters is the performance tomorrow. I will do my best to get through to the final part of qualifying and then aim for a good grid position.”

Chris Dyer:
“We are reasonably pleased with how things went this Spanish Grand Prix Friday. The team, both back at home and at the track, has put in a big effort to bring this aero package to Barcelona and the fact we had no reliability problems is already a positive element. The track confirmed our first impressions, that the handling of the car has improved and, from what we can learn from an initial analysis of the situation, we are in better shape than at the previous races. Tomorrow, our aim is to get both cars into Q3 and then to have a good race on Sunday. The tyres are behaving as expected: on the harder ones, we are struggling to get good grip, while we are fine on the softer ones, both in terms of grip and consistency of their performance.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

Spanish GP 2009 - Ferrari Preview

jemela — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:13:34 +0000

In the past, when the Formula 1 calendar reached its first European event of the season, phrases such, “now the season really starts” and “this is where the title is decided” were commonplace. However, these days, as in every world class sport, there is no time to relax, no warm-up period and no time for complacency.

Therefore, although finally wiping the zero off the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro scoreboard, thanks to Kimi Raikkonen’s sixth place in Bahrain, was an encouraging morale booster for the team, it by no means diminishes the huge task facing the Scuderia and those others whose early season performance did not live up to expectations.

At the Catalunya circuit this weekend, the Ferrari F60 will be fitted with a new aero package that was always scheduled to debut at the Spanish Grand Prix: it features new bodywork, with modifications to front and rear wings among other elements. In addition to the scheduled updates, the Barcelona package also includes some extra changes, originally scheduled for the Turkish and British events, but now brought forward. Of course, the most obvious aspect of the new package and the one that was not part of the original plans is the new diffuser. It is only a first attempt at designing a part that was not part of the initial design, but is now a required element following the new clarification of the rules governing this component, which emerged as a result of the pre-China GP Court of Appeal hearing and judgement. The new diffuser has only been on the car since last week, when it was tested on Saturday in Vairano, as part of the allowed aero test days, with Marc Gene at the wheel.

Initial results inevitably show that the car now produces more downforce and will be quicker than in the early part of the season. How much quicker this will make the F60 when compared to the opposition that has been using this component for a while and those who, like Ferrari, are introducing it in Spain, is hard to say. The first indications will only come during Friday’s free practice sessions when all teams run on the same track at the same time. Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that, thanks to the new rules, this is the first major development on the car that has been carried out without the benefit of track testing.

Accommodating the new rear diffuser has been a complex task. The engineers have had to redesign much of the electronics and hydraulics systems at the rear end of the car, in order to relocate components to make way for the new diffuser. This redesign has been a more complicated procedure than designing, producing and fitting the diffuser itself.

In addition to these performance related modifications, a new chassis (number 279) will be used in Barcelona by Kimi Raikkonen. It is lighter than the existing chassis and the reason only Raikkonen will use it is that clearly, his natural physique and height means he weighs more than Felipe Massa and therefore it is more of a challenge to accommodate the additional weight of the KERS system on his car. This was part of a planned programme which began at the end of 2008. Making the chassis lighter has in no way compromised the safety aspect and indeed, the new chassis was put through a crash test, which it passed. And on the subject of KERS, this will be used again in Spain, after much work has been carried out on the reliability of the system since the last race. With temperatures expected to be much cooler than the extreme conditions experienced in Bahrain, it is hoped that reliability will not be a concern.

The Spanish Grand Prix takes place on the first circuit on the calendar where teams had a chance to test their cars over the winter. In the March tests, the Ferrari F60 was quite competitive, if one rules out the times of the team currently leading the series. However, the cars have evolved so much in the past few weeks that the test results should not be regarded as a clear indication of the current pecking order. The Circuit de Catalunya is regarded as the best track for evaluating aerodynamic performance and it is a truism that a car which performs well here will usually perform equally well at the majority of circuits. It is unlikely that there will be much overtaking during the race, once again emphasising the importance of Qualifying. As for KERS, this should be an advantage here for the F60, built to run with the energy system as an intrinsic part of its design, which means that, as was evident in back to back tests during practice in Bahrain, the F60 gains virtually no advantage in terms of car balance, when running without it. KERS can be a significant driver aid at the race start here, as the main straight is very long.

The team itself continues to work hard, aware it is having to play “catch-up” to the teams currently at the top of the points table. The Scuderia does not regard this fifth round of the championship as a make or break Grand Prix and even if the Barcelona race does not bring home a big points score, everyone including the drivers will be giving the European part of the season maximum concentration and effort.

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Spanish GP 2009 - Bridgestone Preview

jemela — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:41:30 +0000

Bridgestone opens the start to nine Formula One races in Europe with the hard and soft tyres at the Spanish Grand Prix, the Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica, at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, on May 8-10.

The Spanish Grand Prix is the fifth round of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship and it takes place at a circuit that teams know very well because of the use of Barcelona as a test venue. The 4.66 km track layout features one long straight and a variety of different corners making set-up a compromise.

The track is quite a harsh one for tyres which means the hard and soft compound allocation is used. Of particular note, the left front tyre is put under significant stress over a course of a lap. As with any circuit, the compromise between finding low drag for the straights and sufficient downforce for the corners is a challenge. Barcelona’s numerous bends make for a greater focus on the corners and the high speeds attained here make for significant energy forces on the tyres.

Hirohide Hamashima -Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, said:

What are the challenges of Barcelona?

“Barcelona has a track surface that is the middle range in terms of abrasion and roughness but durability

and driver requirements mean our harder allocation combination is used. The front left tyre has a lot of

work to do at this circuit and equally, teams and drivers will have a big challenge trying to gain an

advantage here as they know this track so well.”

Many teams have tested their latest cars here in the pre-season, will this make a difference?

“Of course, the experience of the teams at this track with their current cars will assist them with set-up.

However, the ambient and track temperatures are likely to be warmer than testing so this will have an

affect. Generally, we see quite close lap times here and close races too. The circuit layout is well

balanced so it is a good indicator of overall car balance. A car that performs in Barcelona has the

potential to perform well at many places.”

Stats & Facts

Number & Spec of tyres brought to Barcelona 1800 (Hard & soft dry. Intermediates/wets)

Pole position time 2008: 1min 21.813secs (Raikkonen)

Fastest race lap 2008: 1min 21.670secs (Raikkonen)

Top three 2008: Raikkonen, Massa, Hamilton

Images (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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