Q: Ross, one thing that came out of the last couple of Grands Prix, and possibly even here, is the tyre temperature range in relation to the weather expected. How much of a problem has that been?
Ross BRAWN: It’s a fairly major issue or a fairly major consideration because the requirements this year have changed again from last year: qualifying performance, we’re prepared to accept a lot more degradation this year if the tyre is quick, so we’re trying to find our references again with a whole new family and set of tyres, with different cars. We were probably a little bit slow off the mark in adopting some tyres which weren’t much more effective at low temperatures and we paid the price for that in Melbourne where the first stint was dreadful, because we couldn’t get the tyres up to temperature and then the second stint, when we were able to put hot tyres on in the pit stop, the car was very good, but of course that’s not a workable situation. Even if the tyres are very good in that situation, it wasn’t workable, so we’ve moved towards tyres which have a lower working range. But of course, they can then suffer when temperatures get too high which is a little bit of what happened at Imola in the middle of the race. Q: Jean Todt seemed to have been very pleased with the top speed that you showed at Imola. How important has that been to the Ferrari performance?
RB: Well, we changed our emphasis from last year. Last year was a year when downforce was really the main parameter and efficiency wasn’t so key. We didn’t really have a very good year and we analysed the circuits where we were good and weren’t so good and we put a much greater emphasis on the efficiency of the car and in fact we made some good strides, good progress in other areas of the car, which affect straight-line speed, so the aero programme was much more focused on efficiency and other areas of the car improved a lot. We’ve got a very good engine. People like to talk about rpm but rpm is not the only parameter and if you can produce the power at lower rpm then that can sometimes be more efficient. So we’ve got a very good engine, for sure, that works very well in the chassis. We’re obviously pleased with the straight-line speed, we’re pleased with the efficiency of the car, but it’s come about because of an awful lot of work by a lot of people.
Q: Michael said at the beginning of the year that this year’s championship was going to be about the pace of development. Has it been roughly what you expected so far?
RB: Well, I think everyone works very hard in all the teams. It’s a question of the results you get from that work, and I think every team in the pit lane is putting a tremendous effort into development. I must say I’m very pleased with the progress we’re making with development this year. We’ve got another aero package here, we had a new one in Imola, so we’ve already moved on. I think there will be a small modification in Barcelona and then there are the new packages coming for Monaco and then the low downforce packages coming for Canada and America. What’s pleasing is that we’re making progress on all those fronts. Last year we did a lot of work and we didn’t make much progress and I think that due to some internal restructuring and a better focus on what we need to do, we’re making a lot of progress. There’s a lot of work coming now on suspension. Suspension is something that we haven’t done very much on over the last few years. Again, we had a new suspension system in Imola, we’ve got some new suspension systems being developed over the next few months so I think last year slightly awakened the giant of Ferrari. It was a bad year and we decided that we have to do something about it and I’m very pleased with our rate of progress this year.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speedsport News) A two part question for you guys. Firstly, cornering speeds are way up on last year. What, besides tyre development, have been influential in that? Also, with those speeds, do you think the run-off areas are big enough any more?
RB: First Dan, I think you need to see some accurate data because cornering speeds are not way up at all. Obviously we don’t have multi-usage of the tyres like in 2005, so yes they will creep up a little bit, but our data shows us that the speeds are not much different to what we were doing in 2004. I don’t know about the others, but it is not a dramatic difference for us. The comparison to 04 is a little bit different because the terminal velocity on the straights is different so the corner speeds are different.
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