High fuel loads for Renault during Friday practice
The ING Renault Formula One Team completed a busy day of practice in preparation for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The team concentrated on the set-up of the car as since this year, there is no longer a test scheduled at the high-speed track before the GP.
Fernando Alonso, R2904
Free practice 1: 21 laps, 1:24.477, P4
Run 1: 5 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 8 laps, same hard tyres, brake balance adjust
Run 3: 7 laps, same hard tyres, front ride height and front wing adjust
Free Practice 2: 35 laps, 1:24.297, P3
Run 1: 6 laps, new hard tyres, gear ratios changed
Run 2: 9 laps, new soft tyres
Run 3: 9 laps, new hard tyres
Run 4: 5 laps, same hard tyres, rear wing adjustment
Run 5: 6 laps, new soft tyres
Fernando: “It was a normal Friday for us where we worked on set-up and evaluated the tyres. If we can find some more performance tomorrow then hopefully we can be in good shape for qualifying.”
Romain Grosjean, R2903
Free practice 1: 18 laps, 1:25.612, P15
Run 1: 8 laps, new hard tyres
Run 2: 5 laps, same hard tyres, change to front wing
Run 3: 4 laps, same hard tyres, change to ride height and front wing
Free Practice 2: 31 laps, 1:24.163, P2
Run 1: 6 laps, new hard tyres, new gear box ratios
Run 2: 8 laps, new hard tyres
Run 3: 10 laps, new soft tyres
Run 4: 3 laps, same soft tyres, change to engine cooling
Run 5: 5 laps, new soft tyres
Romain: “Today has gone rather well, although I had to learn the Monza circuit for the first time in an F1 car. It’s the ‘temple of speed’ and a legendary circuit where there is a lot to learn, especially running with the KERS and so there were lots of new procedures for me to get used to. We finished the day in good shape and I’m continuing to work well with the engineers. I tried to improve the set-up and the results were positive so I will continue in the same way tomorrow.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: “Monza is unique circuit and among the many things we have to consider here is brake wear. For this reason, it is necessary to run quite high fuel loads during practice to test the brakes. At the same time, tyres are critical and equally this is another reason to run high fuel loads. Naturally this gives great changes between race set-up and qualifying set-up so today we ran both high and low fuel loads and we are satisfied with the performance of the car in both conditions.”
