Wurz of wisdom - Imola

Alexander Wurz"Imola – the sound of the name alone is great and is packed with so many meanings. But I am not here to speak about the romance or tragic stories of that race track, I want to explain why Imola is a very special track and why it’s nowadays quite different from other circuits.

One main reason is its demand on brakes. It is one of the hardest tracks on brake wear and that means we run harder material on brake discs and pads, which gives us less feel and control. With that sort of hard brake material it is also much harder to warm the brakes up. Well, to be precise, it’s the bigger brake cooling ducts which cause the warm-up problems, but whatever the cause the problem is the same: brake warm-up.

Typically for F1, the brake warm-up problem has a knock-on effect. We all know about the recent big problem of tyre warm-up issues, which both tyre manufacturers have on some of their constructions. Well quite a big part of warming up a tyre is from the heat generated from the brakes, so – you know where I’m going with this – brake warm-up problems mean more difficulty in warming up the tyres. That then influences the tyre pressure difference in the run and makes it more difficult to get a good balance delta between the beginning, middle or end of run. So that’s the chassis influence, but it certainly makes it more difficult for the drivers as well – but nothing talent can't overcome, if you have enough of it!

Apologies if you’re bored with me moaning about warm-up issues, but it’s particularly bad if we have weather at Imola like we’ve had in some of the last few years, when it has been f****** freezing.

The other big thing about Imola is the aggressive kerbing on the chicanes, especially at Variante Alta – the chicane on the top of the hill – and the chicane just before the start/finish line. I hear Variante Alta has been changed, so I don’t know how it will be this weekend, but whatever they’ve done, there’s nowhere apart from Monza that we hit the kerbs as aggressively as we do at Imola. Not only is it a little lottery every time you hit one, it also influences the electronic set-up quite a bit, as sometimes the control systems get quite confused when suddenly wheels are in the air and jumping off the kerbs.

But personally I like Imola as it somehow requires a different driving style – it’s very easy to overdrive the car and be too aggressive, but certainly you need to grab your balls and attack hard at certain points on the track. The run-offs are quite old-fashioned and small at places, so it’s best not be a chicken or on the wrong insurance policy…!"