Williams ready for high speed challenge at Monza
Williams F1 is heading towards Monza, close to Milan, to participate this weekend in the Italian GP. While both drivers are confident about the race ahead, the team's operations engineer Mark Gillan is aware of the challenges that the high speed circuit has to offer.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer:
"Monza marks the last of the European races before the cars head off on their extended seven race round the world trip. Monza is an interesting circuit with the highest top and average speeds of any circuit, although cornering speeds are similar to that of Barcelona. Aerodynamic efficiency and engine power sensitivities are therefore very high and so is braking severity. It also has a high pit loss and low fuel effect that tends to favour less stops. The tyres are the same as raced in Spa, namely the Hard and Medium tyres."
Pastor Maldonado:
"Monza is another historic track that drivers like visiting so I’m really looking forward to this weekend. It’s the quickest track we visit all season and requires a very particular set up with a completely different aero package. The car has low down force levels at Monza so we will have to adapt to that setup. The track itself is a challenging one for drivers and has quite a few overtaking opportunities so it should be an exciting weekend for the fans."
Bruno Senna:
"While we didn’t finish in the points the car showed good pace at Spa, particularly on the long straights, so the signs are looking good heading into Monza. It’s a very fast circuit and is a real old fashioned test for the driver’s so I’m looking forward to the race. The team is working very hard to get the maximum out of the car and if we can get qualifying right we should be looking for a points finish."
Rémi Taffin, Head of Renault Sport F1 Track Operations:
"The driver will spend as much as 75% of the lap at full throttle so we make sure that all the internals, maps, fuel and lubricants settings are triple checked. We could run a test engine to as much as 3,000km on a simulation of this track to check reliability and performance, ten times a race distance. Monza has two very long straights that are over a kilometre each so we work to create a powerful map that works well over the last two thousand revs, but we also need good acceleration out of the very slow chicanes as the driver will brake down from over 330kph to just 80kph before accelerating back up to over 300kph in a little over 150m."
Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director:
"Monza is our home race, just half an hour from our headquarters in Milan, so we're all very much looking forward to it. Like Spa, this is a high speed and high energy circuit, so we have selected the P Zero Silver hard and P Zero White medium once more. These compounds should allow the teams to push hard from start to finish at the fastest circuit of the year, which is also steeped in Formula One history. We're expecting to see a wide variety of race strategies, which has become a key ingredient to success during a season where the cars have never been so closely matched."
