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Australian GP Review: AT&T Williams |
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 |
Synopsis
The team had a difficult start to the weekend when a
newly introduced gearbox component failed in both cars in the first
practice session on Friday. This required both drivers to sit out the
session while remedial work was undertaken. While Kazuki had an
untroubled second session and started to gain valuable track time,
Nico’s differential lock was not working and it was not possible to
correct during the session.
The decision was taken to continue practice albeit the car was far from
optimal. Saturday morning’s practice was thus important in order to
progress set-up work with both cars running at full pace without any
reliability issues. Qualifying was compromised by the red flag in Q2,
with Rosberg having to contest Q3 on used option tyres and Kazuki
losing the opportunity for a second flying lap.
Rosberg had a
very strong start to the Grand Prix on Sunday, moving up three places
to fourth on the first lap. He held station in this position for the
first stint, climbing up to second as cars ahead of him made their
first stops. Kazuki by contrast had an eventful first lap, finding
Vettel’s Toro Rosso sideways across the track blocking his way in turn
one. The collision required a return to the pits for a new nose
assembly.
Rosberg completed his two stop plan largely unaffected
by the various safety car periods, but a decision was taken on the
pitwall to modify Kazuki’s strategy to a single stop. A hard charge by
Rosberg prior to his second stop enabled him from lap 49 to hold third
place to the flag. Kazuki however visited the pits for a third time
after damage to the front of his car in an incident involving Robert
Kubica’s BMW when a train of cars backed up into a corner. He rejoined
to finish in seventh place and drove strongly to the end. He was
subsequently promoted to sixth following Barrichello’s disqualification
for not observing the pitlane red light.
The absence of traction
control contributed to an eventful race. As Nico Rosberg commented, “We
saw lots of incidents in yesterday’s race, due I am sure in part to the
Grand Prix being the first since the banning of traction control. As
much as thanking the team for everything they did, I have to say a big
thank you to Toyota too as one of the most significant virtues of our
engine is that is very driveable. This was a great asset to have since
the loss of driver aids and helped me to have a strong race considering
that only seven cars made it home.”
Tyres and Fuel
Nico Rosberg
Medium-Medium-Soft
Kazuki Nakajima Medium-Medium-Soft-Medium
Nico Rosberg
Stop 1, lap 21 (Kovalainen only two-stopping car to run further)
Kazuki Nakajima
Modified strategy to one stop
Systems and Reliability
Both
FW30s demonstrated 100% reliability during the race, although Friday
practice was interrupted by two resolvable faults with the transmission.
Next Events
The
team is currently in transit to Malaysia for this weekend’s Malaysian
Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg will attend a driver day in Singapore for RBS
on Tuesday 18 March.
Sam Michael
“It was a
good start to the season for us. Clearly Friday’s problems, which were
easily resolved, cost us the opportunity to progress smoothly but we
managed to get back on track by Saturday, albeit our qualifying session
was not optimal. Both drivers performed well in different ways during
the race, Nico keeping clear of the various on-track incidents and
running competitively throughout the race, while Kazuki demonstrated a
calm approach in coping with the various problems he encountered to
finish in the points. Approaching this weekend’s race at Sepang, we
will be focusing on preparing better on Friday to help our qualifying
and race effort.”
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