Canada Race Weekend Report – Part 1 Free Practice by Norman Malcolm Skinner
FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2011 (Monte Carlo)
Date…..10 – 12/06/2011
Circuit…Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
What an incident full and exiting race weekend (same eight word opening for Monaco) at one of the lowest down force circuits on the formula one calendar.
Gone were the extra sized wings, front and rear, on all cars, except Williams who ran their Monaco Rear Wing. Brake ducts were the maximum aperture to provide the necessary brake cooling. Though braking is only 18% of the short lap the energy dissipation is extremely high at an average of 1845kw for the 7 breaking zones.
Red Bull’s front brake air duct which could be seen when the front nose was off the car is very large. The only oddity of this arrangement was the downward angle of the duct’s intake. This must have been developed in the wind tunnel and may offset the drag which large intakes produce. The larger diameter intake aperture would normally cost about 2/10ths of a second per lap. The guidance vanes deflecting air inwards at the top and bottom in the intake hole were also noticeable. Besides the air ducts Red Bull have modified the diffuser and returned to the rear wing used in Spain
McLaren have elongated their rear brake air intake and put a wide inner flange on it.
Gone is the Red Bull like rear from the Ferrari cars. There is instead a stabilising fin which almost touches the rear wing support upright. The engine cover air outlet is a slot alongside and below this fin, blowing horizontally above the beam wing.
The decision as to which tyres Pirelli are going to use at Valencia has not yet been made. The World Motor Sport Council meeting of 8th March 2011 ratified the testing of extra tyres on Friday’s free practice sessions. The ruling is that an extra two sets of additional specification of dry weather tyres would be issued to the teams for FP1 and FP2 and would be returned to the tyre supplier before FP3. Towards this end Pirelli have issued medium compound tyres which are marked silver/white.
Friday 10/06/11
Free Practice Session One 10:00 to 11:30 local time.
Track Temperature…27 to 33oC
Air Temperature…….17 to 19oC
Wind Speed………….Gusting, 3 to 6.4 mps. Variable direction
Track Surface……….Dry. Very slippery and Dusty
Humidity……………..53% at the start of session, 46% at the end.
Cloud Cover………….Clear, 0/10.
With a green track that had the added disadvantage of being extremely dusty driving was very difficult. Control of the cars required maximum concentration and a supreme feel for where the traction was or was not. The braking balance of the car was the most critical setup criterion. This circuit is very smooth which did not aid braking or traction out of the slow corners. At the first low down force circuit of the season all teams relied on the exhaust blow diffuser to provide the ground effect to supply performance. No team was without this device this weekend.
All the teams ran the test, medium compound tyre in this session. The track conditions were so bad that no one used the race tyres which were the soft, yellow marked prime and super soft, red marked option.
Daniel Ricciardo (Force India) set the first lap time 22 minutes into the session. The slow lap time of 1:26.560 reflected the poor track conditions. As the dust was swept off the track by the cars and some rubber went down, the lap times improved. With 46 minutes remaining in the session Felipe Massa (Ferrari) set a time of 1:17.707.
Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren lost all indications on the Steering Wheel and came into the pits with 54 minutes remaining. He had only done 8 laps, 4 of which were installation. With 47 minutes remaining, his team were removing the floor to find the electrical problem. With 27 minutes remaining Lewis went back out on the track still without steering wheel indication. The gear change indication is not the critical indication as the ECU can be made to beep in the drivers earpiece when it is time to change gears. The comparative sector and lap times are the critical measurement as a driver needs these to see if he is bettering his performance. Lewis went on to do 19 laps in total.
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) went out early and did an installation lap. It was not until there was 44 minutes left in the session that he did his second installation lap. He had a problem with his brakes and these were being worked on in the garage. Sebastian only set a timed lap when there were 40 minutes remaining. He stayed out for several laps and on his 8th lap of the day approached turn 12 with a bit too much speed. His front left brake locked up and he never regained control. Through the chicane he went over the far kerb and straight into the Wall of Champions.
Has no one told him that it is not mandatory to hit this wall now that he is a champion.
The race was red flagged for 5 minutes while the marshals cleared the circuit.
All the free practice lap times can be found in a link at the end of the article.
Free Practice Session Two 14:00 to 15:30 local time.
Track Temperature…44 to 43oC
Air Temperature…….22 to 24oC
Wind Speed………….Gusting, 2.2 to 3.5 mps.
Track Surface……….Dry. Not as dusty as the morning session.
Humidity …………….35%
Cloud Cover………….Clear, 1/10.
Sergio Perez (Sauber) who completed 27 laps in free practice one, told Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber CEO, that he was not feeling well and did not have the confidence to continue racing over the weekend. This came as a complete surprise to the team as Sergio had been examined in two hospitals and had also been passed by the FIA doctor. This FIA medical examination was discussed the race preview. With 10 minutes to go before free practice 2 started, Pedro de la Rosa was called up to drive the remainder of the weekend. Pedro is a test driver for McLaren. There had been discussions between Sauber and McLaren during the week that should Sergio not pass the FIA examination then Pedro would drive the Sauber in his place. Sergio having passed the FIA Examination and having taken part in the first session this contingency plan was thought not to be needed. Fortunately Sauber had brought a seat built for Pedro from last year. This was hastily fitted and without even having time to adjust the pedal positions, Pedro was once again racing for Sauber though dressed in a McLaren driver’s suit. He raced 14 grand prix for Sauber last year before being replaced by Nick Heidfeld who races for Lotus R this year. This provided for a strange situation which has not happened for 21 years. Not since 1980 have there been two 40 year old drivers starting a F1 grand prix race.
Three minutes in to the session Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) set the first lap time of 1:21.955.
Fourteen minutes into the session Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) breaks the 1:16 barrier with a lap time of 1:15.739. This is in a rebuilt car after the crash of the morning and on the prime tyre. What a driver.
With 38 minutes left in the session Adrian Sutil (Force India) hit the wall on the exit of turn 7. The blow to the wall was a very slight brush but still enough to break the suspension. Adrian had just done his personal best in sector one and was obviously pushing hard. He was on option tyres. The magnesium flare from the wheels was quite spectacular. A yellow flag period ensured for 3 and a quarter minutes.
Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) lost control coming out of turn 3 and hit the wall at the exit of turn 4. A red flag was waved with 32 minutes remaining and 10 minutes was lost as the Sauber had to be trucked off the track.
Not 2 minutes later Jerome D’Ambrosio (Virgin) did exactly the same as Kamui in exactly the same place. Again there was a red flag and another 6 minutes was lost. Fortunately Jerome’s car was within the reach of a crane.
All the free practice lap times can be found in a link at the end of the article.
Saturday 11/06/2011
Free Practice Session Three 10:00 to 11:00 local time.
Track Temperature…27 to 30oC
Air Temperature…….22 to 23oC
Wind Speed………….Gusting, 1.1 to 5.7 mps.
Track Surface……….48% at the start of session,
Humidity……………..53% at the end.
Cloud Cover………….Cloudy 9/10.
In the 9th minute Nico Rossburg (Mercedes) set the first lap time of 1:16.977, followed immediately with a lap of 1:15.934, then 1:15.034. This demonstrated that the option tyres need to be worked into the best operating mode to achieve optimum performance.
Nico Rossburg (Mercedes)’s lap time stood until Jenson Button (McLaren) did a lap in 1:14.942 in the 24th minute of the session. The times were bettered by various drivers as the session progressed. The Ferraris, McLarens, a Red Bull and Mercedes were all vying with each other for the honours. Eventually with 2 minutes remaining, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) put in a lap that ended up the fastest of the session, see the full results below..
Mark Webber (Red Bull) did not take part in free practice 3 at all. There was a problem with the KERS unit again. For the whole session mechanics were working on the car and Mark Webber (Red Bull) was not even in the garage. Red Bulls Achilles’ heal is definitely the KERS unit. Had Adrian Newey had his way there would not be any KERS in his cars.
There were a few brief yellow flags during the session for drivers going off the track, but no major accidents until after the chequered flag. Pedro de la Rosa lost control of his Sauber car in turn 3 and hit the wall at the exit of turn 4. This was similar to the accidents from the previous day. Pedro was not injured but the car was a mess.
The free practice lap times are here for interest.
This report should be read in conjunction with The 2011 Formula One Guide
Norman Racer
f1-guide.com
f1-guide.info
About the Author
I am a 65 year old male. An electrical engineer. My interest in Formula One started at a very early age and I have over 50 years of following the sport. I was lucky enough to be a race track marshal at Kayalami in the days it hosted F1. I am the author of The 2011 Formula One Guide
2014 Silver Lotus Elite
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