Technical preview Magny-Cours with Vasselon

Panasonic Toyota Racing returns to Europe this weekend following its North American double-header, with the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. Pascal Vasselon gives us a technical preview of the race at Magny-Cours.

"Jarno gave us an excellent performance. He was very honest about his concern after the incident with Robert Kubica in Montreal. I think Jarno was relieved at the eventual outcome and was able to come to Indianapolis with a clear head and focus fully on the American weekend. He even entered into the spirit of things by arriving every day on a Harley Davidson! His qualifying performance to start eighth was very satisfying, especially when you factor in the fuel load, and he was flat-out all race. He resisted some determined driving by Mark Webber and got us a great sixth place. With the two leading teams monopolising the top four positions again, it was a very strong performance from Jarno. Still, we cannot be totally happy with a sixth place."

"There’s no legislating for that. Ralf certainly doesn’t seem to have a lot of luck at Indy. There was a lot of jockeying for position going into Turn 1, Ralf’s tyres locked and he made contact with David Coulthard. That was the end of his afternoon, right there at Turn 1."

"Ralf was actually doing a very good job. His lap time in Q1 was very strong, seventh quickest overall and almost as quick as Jarno’s Q2 time. He had a very strong infield sector time but as we saw with a lot of drivers, it was very difficult to put the whole lap together. If Ralf had been able to do the same sector two time in Q2 he would have been in the top 10."

"It was quite difficult, for reasons that applied to everyone. You have a combination of two things: first, low downforce because of the long front straight and, second, the asphalt on the infield is low grip, so that makes life difficult for the drivers. That’s why we always see a lot of cars struggling for grip at Indy."

"The tyres were working well without any of the extreme situations we saw to in Monaco and especially in Montreal with the super soft. Both tyres were easily raceable but still a difference between the compounds developed throughout the weekend. As usual the harder tyre started quite well. It is usually more consistent on a Friday but then when the grip develops the harder one starts to lose its potential. The soft was definitely the quicker race tyre."

"Actually, for us the track developed as we would have expected. The evolution of the difference between the two tyres is usually a good indicator and we saw a fairly typical development of relative grip and consistency, which showed that the track was rubbering in."

"We have a few updates as we go back to a kind of baseline circuit in aerodynamic terms. Ever since Monaco we have been running with special aero packages, which are more race-specific than our baseline package. Monaco, of course, is high downforce, while Canada and Indy are two steps in the direction of a low downforce package. At Magny Cours we will be back to a similar baseline as Barcelona and even Bahrain and Sepang. We have been developing of course and will have an upgraded package."

"Well, I’m just curious to see how our British friends will celebrate what could be the last Magny Cours race because we know that they love the place so much!"

"What’s special at Magny Cours is that the asphalt is very dark. As soon as you have a bit of sunshine the surface temperature goes up very quickly so, even with reasonable ambient temperature between 25-30 degrees you can have 50 degree track temperature."

"It impacts significantly on tyre behaviour and balance."

"I’m not sure that the aero explanation is the main factor. The tyre factor is probably more dominant because, for sure, the tyres allow less sliding. It is much easier to make mistakes. The tyres have less grip and it’s very easy to put them outside the right operating window. That makes it more difficult for the driver to attack a corner with the confidence that a bit of sliding won’t put him in the gravel. It’s actually quite hard to attack with these tyres. You have to be very clean and that explains the difficulties some drivers have, particularly those who are used to sliding the rear tyres. This season that approach doesn’t work so well."

"At Indianapolis we were comparatively not so strong in the low grip/low downforce configuration compared to where we were in Barcelona, although Jarno gave us a very good race. We are looking forward to being back to the baseline package which we have focused most of our effort on. We are hopeful of another strong points-scoring performance."