We were able to let some of the guys go and warm up for example I remember some using
some of the heat guns in order to dry off their shoes because it was quite wet out there.
Can a debrief be longer than a race?
Obviously, normally I would hope not, that would be a long time for me standing here
talking to you but on this occasion, let's find out.
We have a question coming in asking why we went for sort of a half-way set-up not a full
wet set-up given the conditions we had on Saturday and Sunday?
Gone are the days where we really create a wet set-up, in the very old days you would
have raised the car off the ground a little bit to give it clearance, you would have changed
perhaps mechanical balance with roll bars, you don’t really do that in that way anymore.
These cars are optimised around a certain ride height range etc.
But what you do and what teams have changed is the amount of downforce that they run.
The rear wing, the balance on the front wing as well and that's what you would have seen
teams changing up and down between Friday, Saturday morning running and qualifying.
The forecast in Spa is difficult at the best of times, we knew that there was chances of
rain all three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Saturday maybe looked like the worst of all
days and that's not what transpired and happened.
It is also very rare to have rain that is a constant level sitting on you all day, there
is very few races in history that I have been doing it where we just had continuous wet
running.
Normally it will convert perhaps down to a dry level, then back up to wet with another
rain shower coming in.
So, you try to have a car that is balanced around what you think the most likely conditions
will be across Saturday and Sunday and what transpired isn’t what we planned for, clearly,
and I suspect what most people hadn't planned for.
If you knew it was just about qualifying it would be a very different set-up to one that
is based around qualifying and a race that could go towards Inters or X Wets at different
points.
In our case, we had a rear wing that was more suited towards that sort of mixed conditions,
more what you saw perhaps in free practice 3, if you saw that on TV, so conditions where
it wasn't quite dry tyres but it dried, another rain shower and it got wet again and as it
was, that's where we thought the conditions would be and that's where we pitched our car.
How many sets of Intermediate tyres and Wet tyres, which we call X Wets here, do you have
available for qualifying and the race?
The rules, and there is quite a large section of those covering exactly this, are built
to ensure that we still have sufficient quantities of tyres if it were to be wet in FP1, FP2
and FP3.
What I can say, and I will take you through the different steps, is from qualifying onwards,
not on a sprint qualifying weekend, but a normal race weekend, which is all but three
this year, we would have four Intermediate tyres and three X Wet tyres.
The Intermediate tyre is a little bit less robust than that X Wet tyre.
The X Wet as long as it is running in wet conditions is actually quite good, it doesn’t
degrade or deteriorate very quickly.
The Intermediate however has very much a good initial performance to it and does drop off
and it does wear especially because the Inter very frequently will be run in conditions
that are running more towards dry, so you damage the tyres.
The Inter is the resource that you've got to protect the most and that's why there are
regulations covering specifically that Intermediate tyre.
What the rules state is that on from Friday, if FP1 or FP2 were declared wet, and that
is unless that only the FIA can put up, and that we use that tyre, we run on the Intermediate
tyre, we are allowed to have another set of Intermediate tyres for qualifying.
The significance is therefore we are now able to run in FP1, FP2 conditions, learn about
the car without fear of damaging that tyre such that it doesn’t become usable for qualifying
or the race.
There is a further regulation that states even if it hasn’t been wet on Friday, but
rain is forecast such that FP3 looks like it is going to be declared wet, again they
will provide another set of Intermediate tyres for us such we always go into qualifying with
four new Intermediate tyres.
And that is important.
In that qualifying that you saw in Spa we used all four sets.
If there had been a wet qualifying and a continued wet race that would have meant that we have
used up our allocation and really had we done any other running on any other compounds prior
to that, you would have really been eating into performance, you would have been eating
into what happened in qualifying.
Why did we put both cars out at the beginning of Q2 on used Intermediate tyres?
This really falls back into the answer to the previous question.
We have four sets of new Intermediate tyres for qualifying, three sets of X Wets, all
new.
But there are three qualifying sessions and more so than that, a qualifying session when
it is very long, 18 minutes in the case of Q1, might mean that you have to run multiple
sets of Intermediate tyres in order to get the best out of it, in order to get a lap
time that puts you through.
In Q2 that was exactly the case.
Everyone really had to run new Intermediate tyres towards the end of that session, one
tyre was just dropping too much performance by the time you used it again, for most cars.
Q3, which is obviously the session that now defines the grid, that's the important session
to make sure that if you can you want two new Intermediate tyres available to you.
But to get two new tyres available in Q3, you really can only have used two tyres across
the entirety of Q1 and Q2.
The result of that is going out on used at the beginning of qualifying 2, especially
with the forecast which was showing that it would improve throughout that session, just
meant that you could safe that precious resource, that new Intermediate tyre right for the end
of it.
So, we went out, it’s a process we have done at other tracks before this, but noticed
that the entire grid was on new Inters and furthermore there was a little bit of a risk
of rain coming in earlier in that session and as a result we decided to abandon that
programme, come immediately straight back in and fit new Intermediate tyres to make
sure that we were not offset to the field.
Now, as we stand here now and knowing how that session evolved, actually we probably
should have stayed on programme, we should have stayed out there on that used Intermediate
tyre such that we fitted a new later, not because we needed to save the Inter, as you
saw Q3 turn into X Wet conditions which wasn't forecast, but more because it meant that a
lot of the time we were spending coming back in and back out of the pits and it's a little
bit of learning that we lost on that Inter tyre.
What happened to the W12 in the wet conditions it looked like both Lewis and Valtteri were
struggling?
I think that's a fair assessment on the balance of what happened but there is a lot more to
it.
We definitely didn’t do the right programme during qualifying, not just during Q3 but
I don’t think we did the optimum in Q1 or in Q2 either.
Every single lap that a driver has available to them matters in those conditions.
Spa is incredibly difficult as a track in the dry, now add the fact that turn 1, which
isn’t really a corner, it's one braking zone, the first proper corner they experience
is Eau Rouge, up and through and in the wet that is flat or nearly flat, you are asking
a driver to commit in conditions they have no idea about, they don’t know what’s
even on the exit of Eau Rouge, they don’t know how much grip they have available to
them but to be fast in qualifying you've got to commit and that's what makes Spa difficult,
not just is it wet, not just is it such a long track conditions in one part can be completely
different to the next, it's that you have to commit to an aggressive level of really
performance and grip without truly knowing how it is.
With the W12, we weren’t quite on the pace of others, in Q2 I think it is fair to say
we had new sets of tyres as did other cars and Norris and his lap was faster, but they
were also running a downforce level more suited to it.
We went for a set-up that was a little bit more balanced for conditions that could be
drier than they were and especially the set-up that I think that had Sunday been Inter conditions
or varying between Inters to going towards dry, we would have been very strong but that's
not what happened.
So, that's the first element that comes through.
We had a little bit of a bias that would have suited other cars on Saturday.
The second is that in those conditions we missed out on some essential laps for the
drivers.
Beginning of Q2, they were trafficked on their lap, then on the second lap the tyres weren’t
quite at their best and we stopped and fitted new ones in the box and when we did, you saw
Lewis moved up to the top of the time sheets so we had a car that could be competitive
in those conditions but everything had to be right for the drivers.
We had a little bit of locking, a little bit of struggling just to get the car slowed down,
not just ourselves but other cars as well into a few of the turns, turn 1 and turn 5
probably being predominantly the key areas.
Now that is not to say other people didn’t struggle from that but clearly, we did and
that hinders your confidence as well in the car and the laps that you have available to
you.
Then finally come Q3, George's lap was obviously incredible but also the programme they completed
I feel would have helped them.
We did a lap 1 with a slow lap 2 and then a lap 3.
Verstappen did the same programme, but that middle lap just took a lot of temperature
out of the tyres.
It was there to try and cool the tyres down to make sure that they were ready to go and
also make sure that we were just in towards the field, so no one had a big advantage or
disadvantage on where they were position on track.
But I feel we just took too much out of our tyres by doing this.
They weren’t quite ready and that is what we saw in turn 1, we just weren’t in the
right place on grip.
George's programme was one where they knew they couldn’t push immediately after they
went out on the X Wets, they had to do a slow preparation lap and actually overall I think
in those conditions that might have been the right programme.
What is aquaplaning?
Aquaplaning in short summary is when there is more water passing through the tyre than
it is able to clear out of the way.
So, the tyre isn’t in contact with the ground anymore.
You don't have grip to the ground.
This happens for clarity in road cars as well and many of you I am sure have experienced
this already when you were driving, perhaps you are just driving at motor way speeds and
all of a sudden the steering is a little bit lighter, the car moves a little bit laterally
left or right and what it means is that all four tyres aren’t in constant grip with
the ground, they are not able to provide the grip required anymore because they have been
lifted off the ground and obviously it is a key moment and a dangerous moment.
The big difference with an F1 car is obviously it is travelling at Spa for example at around
300 km/h, so we are asking the tyre to move a huge amount of water out of the way and
ensure that we can still get the car slowed for braking.
There are rivers in Spa at a number of places and that's typically where you see these aquaplaning
moments.
It is where the water pools or is at its deepest.
One tyre is okay but once you start getting multiple tyres you are simply going to lose
control of the vehicle if it is for a sufficiently long period of time.
How did the team spent the three hours waiting for the re-start?
It is an interesting question because it developed quite organically across that period.
For the first delayed start we were only given 5 minutes’ worth of warning and 5 minutes
warning means that we simply have to remain exactly in position as we would normally.
The tyres have to be bolted to the car, the driver has to be in the car and all of us
have to be prepared for the fact the race can get going and 5 minutes is barely enough
time to get everything in order.
Once the delay goes up to 10 minutes, it might feel as though that provides us enough time
but it isn’t.
The wheels still have to be bolted to the car and ready to go.
The gazebos and all of the coverings that you saw on the track have to be moved out
of the way at around about seven minutes to go.
What it actually means is that every time when you saw it happening, we just got the
notification as we were clearing off the grid and had to put everything back in place again.
So, ten minutes was just on the limit to the window where really everyone had to remain
prepared.
Once the sessions kept getting delayed more and more and we were given a higher time scale
we were able to let some of the guys go and warm up, for example I remember some using
some of the heat guns in order to dry off their shoes because it was quite wet out there
and in the case of ourselves, we stayed predominantly on the pit wall for certainly the first few
hours, then migrated to the truck when we knew we had a half an hour window, Lewis was
in there, Valtteri was in there and Toto was in there as well and we were able to have
just a short catch-up and brief over what could happen going forward, review together
the regulations to understand what was going to happen with the weather forecast and just
really align the team again without being outside in the cold.
But in these conditions you are pretty much remaining race ready throughout.
As you saw with the final bit of notice we were given ten minutes to get ready and if
we were elsewhere or unprepared at that point you simply couldn’t get the car leaving
in that period of time.
Ten minutes is just enough time to get the driver to the car, bolted in and get ready
to go.
How many cups of tea or coffee did you have?
It is an interesting question.
I think I had three cups of tea in that period.
We are very fortunate whilst we were out in the cold, we had a couple of cups of tea brought
to us.
I remember one year, it wasn’t this year, where one of the engineers took their thermos
and filled it up with coffee, literally filled it, just to make sure to get through.
But one of the problems you have is actually you really can't drink too much when you are
out at the pit wall.
Let's imagine the race had got going and you had to sit there for an hour what I can guarantee
you don’t want is to have three cups of tea and sat there wanting to go to the loo
for an hour.
So, you dose yourself.
We had a question come in asking about drainage holes in the chassis assuming that there were
some?
Well, there aren’t.
It would weaken the cockpit obviously to drill holes in the bottom for the purpose of letting
water out, but its not as big a problem perhaps as it may seem.
First of all, the actual cockpit opening whilst there isn’t a driver inside it is covered
at all times.
We have an umbrella typically over the entrance or a gazebo that we put on top of it when
we know we are there for a longer period of time.
And otherwise there is a driver sat in it which pretty much occupies most of that entry
way and of course he is wearing a suit that will absorb water.
And the car will get heavier if I had to guess it will be a couple of kilos that the car
gets heavier by due to the fact that it has been raining and the rain will pool in various
locations.
But once the driver is out if you look at the bottom inside the cockpit area there is
not really a huge amount of water that collects in there at all because of what we have just
described.
Where it does collect is you get some in the radiators, some in the ducts and just a few
places you wouldn’t even believe but that isn’t critically apart from just making
the car a little bit heavier.
The cars are also very, very waterproofed these days.
We ensure for example the steering wheel can deal with the fact that it is being exposed
to the elements for a couple of hours and that applies to other electronics within the car.
Thank you again for all of your questions and we will be back next week
after the Dutch Grand Prix.