Chester: Monza is quite challenging

"It is such a low downforce circuit"

By Franck Drui

1 September 2014 - 10:05
Chester: Monza is quite challenging

How much of a challenge is Monza for the engineers?

It is quite challenging because it is such a low downforce circuit. It is difficult to get grip in the car and for the drivers to feel comfortable – so working on the car set-up is key. We will also focus on the braking so Romain and Pastor can make gains on the entries to the chicanes and generally feel more comfortable in feeling where the limits are. We have more aero parts to take to Italy which we will try on the Friday free practice sessions. We will have a low-drag rear wing for Monza that is circuit-specific and as a result the skinniest we will run all season. It is all about meeting the low downforce challenge.

What would a current generation car be like if used on the old Monza banking?

In actual fact, it would probably be very dull because of the amount of downforce these days which would mean the car would be like on rails, glued to the track with no sliding at all. The old Monza banking is really bumpy – and I believe that it was bumpy even back in the days it was used. Cars used to break springs regularly and so a modern car just wouldn’t survive on it from a vehicle dynamic perspective.

How fast could the latest generation F1 cars be on the Monza straight?

It will depend on the downforce and drag levels that the teams will run but I expect it will be higher than last year. It might be possible to achieve 360kph on the straight, depending if the car is getting a tow with DRS.

Neither car made it to the end of the race in Belgium – is there any further insight into what went wrong?

As we suspected, it was an exhaust failure for Pastor and we have identified the area of the exhaust that broke so that has been updated for Monza. For Romain, the aero imbalance he experienced was due to an issue with the rear wing mounting mid-race. He did have a few excursions off circuit so we had loadings that you would not normally see which we think contributed to this.

Are there any specific mechanical ways in clawing back any power disadvantage at a track like Monza?

Not really. If you are trying to improve straight line speed then reduced downforce and drag is the only way, however this means a downforce deficit to the other cars so you would get penalised on the corners, especially the Lesmos and Parabolica.

Do you expect the cars to be more of a handful to drive with the relative lack of downforce in the 2014 spec?

They will be a little bit trickier than last year’s car being a bit lighter in downforce and with more torque in the turbo engines so I think the exit of the chicanes can be quite tricky. We have seen in all the cars this year how the cars move under acceleration out of a corner and at Monza which is the circuit where we run the cars in their most slippery configuration, we will see some acrobatics from the drivers as they manage the cars on power at mid-corner and also on the exits.

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