COOPER: Notes From The F1 Paddock

Formula 1

COOPER: Notes From The F1 Paddock

Adam Cooper discusses the KERS system and interrupts Nico Rosberg's book club as the rain continues to fall in Portugal

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted January 20, 2009 Portimao (POR)

De La Rosa could barely make it back to the pits when the rain really hit (LAT Photo)

On Tuesday the focus of the F1 world turned to Valencia in Spain, where BMW Sauber unveiled the car that many think will be a World Championship contender this year. Meanwhile here at Portimao four of the cars that it will have to beat continued to log some miles, albeit not very many of them.

Once again rain spoiled the day’s running for the teams here. Unlike yesterday there was at least some sun from time to time, and driving along the highway to the track this morning there was the pleasant sight of a rainbow in the skies. Rain came and went throughout the day, and even when there were occasional dry spells the odd stream across the track meant that conditions were rarely ideal. The still new surface is very greasy anyway.

At one point early in the afternoon the skies turned lack and hail thundered onto the circuit. The only cars drivers out at the time were Pedro de la Rosa and Sebastien Buemi, both of whom had to tiptoe back to the garages at walking pace. Indeed Pedro was shadowed down the pitlane by a 4WD circuit vehicle that looked like it wanted to pull out and pass the McLaren! The entire McLaren crew came out to take a look at the weather, sample the hail first hand, and chart their man’s progress – the only thing anyone could do was smile. Typically, not long afterwards the sun returned.

It’s frustrating for everyone because testing is so restricted this year. Teams have only a handful of tests, with just a single car, until the first race. And after that, it’s banned within the season, so every lap completed now is like gold dust, as there is so much to learn about KERS, the new aero package, and of course slicks.

Slicks haven’t been seen much here this week but wet weather running is always useful, and it brought home one interesting point. This year of course downforce levels have been substantially reduced, but in the dry that is compensated for to a large degree by the extra grip from the slick tires. However, when it’s wet you have reduced downforce, but the same wet tyres that were used last year. In other words there is less grip, and wet or wet/dry races could be more even more challenging than they used to be.

In addition, as Toyota technical guru Pascal Vasselon told me, it’s already clear that the extra boost out of a corner that KERS provides is not going to be very welcome in the wet...

While this week has seen the likes of Renault and Toyota running KERS on track for the first time, McLaren has yet to do so. The team ran a system as long ago as September and again after the end of the season, so it does have some experience. The definitive 2009 set-up is different, and while it was on the car, it is not yet ready to run in anger, and that meant the team had one less thing to worry about as it carried out its usual new car checks. It should be operational at the next test.

On Sunday while discussing the unusual look of this year’s cars Pedro de la Rosa told me that if the rear wings had remained unchanged, then the 2009 models would look a lot better. And guess what? Today he ran with a wide, ’08 spec rear wing. Ostensibly that was because in the terrible conditions the team preferred to run with extra grip and thus ensure no time was lost with an off while those all-important systems checks were being carried out. That makes sense, but a cynic might think that the team had an experienced an ‘issue’ with the new wing and had to put it aside temporarily... I shall of course accept the official explanation!

McLaren’s attention to detail was evident when Pedro ran several slow laps of the track, funnily enough just before the hail came down. That was a safety car simulation, to see if anything failed or caught fire or whatever when running at slower speeds. Not that a fire was likely in the cold, wet conditions, but it shows that teams think of everything these days.

Off track, there was some extra interest today as Toyota ran a low-key press conference featuring its management and drivers. The car was launched on the internet last week before being shaken down here, but there had been no opportunity to grill team personnel. There was one main subject of conversation – if Toyota doesn’t win this year, will Tokyo pull the plug? Team president John Howett made it pretty clear – we should be winning by now, so of course that has to be the target.

Sebastien Buemi got in some precious dry running, albeit in a 2008-spec Toro Rosso (LAT Photo)

The times today were meaningless thanks to the conditions, and if you wonder why Sebastien Buemi was so clearly fastest for the second day, bear in mind that not only does he have a well proven package, he has last year’s downforce levels as well, which as noted makes a huge difference in the wet.

A new arrival here today was Nico Rosberg, who I caught up with in the early evening as he sat in the Williams motorhome. He was literally completely on his own – even the hospitality staff were out of sight in the kitchen – and he’d been busying himself in a book until I interrupted. It was good to catch up with him for the first time since Brazil.

‘Today was a mess because the tyres were just not made for these temperatures,’ he said. ‘The wets, they just don’t work at all. It was really just about surviving. I felt I could keep it on the track so I just did as many laps as I could for the team, because any lap just helps. But today I didn’t learn anything. Literally the tyres weren’t working all day.’

Meanwhile Nelson Piquet had an equally frustrating day, running virtually no laps after the car was sidelined by a problem related to the crankshaft. He too had plenty of time to sit in the motorhome, and reflect on an unproductive day.

Nelson Piquet was sidelined by a crankshaft failure early on (LAT Photo)

‘To be honest the weather has been terrible and we didn’t do much running,’ he told me. ‘The first few runs are just to see if everything is running on the car. I didn’t test anything, we didn’t test the KERS, we didn’t test the front wing. We were supposed to do some more running, but with these conditions it didn’t help. It started to get dry and then we had a problem with the car.’

On Wednesday the sun should be shining. It will be a big day as Lewis Hamilton steps into the new car and competes his first laps on any track since he clinched the World Championship in Brazil. Meanwhile Fernando Alonso will get his first taste of the new Renault. That’s when things will really get interesting...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Cooper

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