Alan Permane analysises second free practice session
The ING Renault F1 Team’s chief engineer, Alan Permane, explains what the programme was for yesterday's second free practice session in Montreal. The team lost a car as Heikki Kovalainen crashed his R27 into the wall.
“Pretty well overall even if we lost a car early on after Heikki went off. First of all, Giancarlo did some short runs to refine the setup and then we did 2 long runs in preparation for the race. In particular, we evaluated brake wear, a crucial element on this track.”
What caused the flames that shot out from Heikki’s wheel when he hit the guardrail?“They were big sparks, probably the reaction between the magnesium rim and the metal guardrail.”
Are you more or less where you thought you’d be?“Yes, we are. The step forward made recently seems to be confirmed. We’re close to BMW, even a little closer to Ferrari although it’s a bit early to confirm it. Overall, we’re happy with our performance level today.”
Have you noticed a big difference between the 2 types of rubber at your disposal?“The softest rubber is obviously the quickest, and that’s what we’ll use in qualifying. But we didn’t really do a proper comparison. We’ll have to wait a bit longer before making a final decision.”
Conditions will be different tomorrow. Will that change anything concerning your preparation?“The local weather forecast says it’ll be cooler tomorrow with a return to higher temperatures on Sunday. It may even rain between now and then. Whatever the case it’ll not change our programme in any way.”
Was grip better this afternoon?“Yes, the track had began to rubber in and we used the softest tyres.”
Source Renault
