While the gains are exponential, does it mean that the teams will bring upgrades to each race? What steps have you taken to accelerate your development?
“Our development budget is significantly higher compared to previous years. That is how we anticipate. Not only are we held back by the fact that the FIA and the regulations are restricting us, we are also restricted in how quickly we can make the components. That is a big part of how quickly we can get components on to the car, because the wind-tunnel model is already several months ahead of the reality. We are not going to be seeing the model that is in there now at the track for several races.”
Simulation tools are becoming more and more precise. Even so, some upgrades do not work as expected. Last year, Pat Symonds admitted that the new front wing of the FW38 had not brought the expected gains. How is this still possible?
“It is impossible to model it with 100% accuracy. So, there are always areas where assumptions are made and some of those assumptions are not close enough to the reality. It’s up to us to look at those areas and understand why the correlation isn’t good. Is it important that it isn’t good? Is it an area that we are happy to just except that there is a miscorrelation, because there are other areas on the car that are more important to get the correlation more accurate? That’s the first thing to decide. Then secondly, what could be the cause of the miscorrelation. Generally, its things like tyre shape, tyre deflection, the way the tyres work around a corner. Things like that are difficult to model accurately. Those are the areas where we find the biggest miscorrelations; things that have a very free air stream away from things that are moving like tyres are very easy to correlate like rear wings, which are very easy. We get a 100% correlation on rear wings. But then we look at areas that are much closer to the tyre and our correlation starts to lessen. There are lots of areas and we spend a lot of time to check, go back and understand why there is a difference. We modify and then change our models, getting a more accurate simulation in going back again…. that process is continual. We are getting closer and closer but we will never reach it, but we are getting closer.”
What is the driver’s role in the development process? Can he initiate or suggest a few things?
“The driver is absolutely key in the way we develop the car. He gives us the feedback on where we should be developing to where we can add performance to the car. We are not necessarily asking him which components should be changed. We’re just asking him which parts of the performance of the car would he like to see improved, where he believes there is lap time to be gained. It is important to stress the fact, where there is lap time to be gained. He will tell us where the car is weak and where it is strong and we replicate that weakness in our simulations, so we understand where it’s coming from and once we understand where we can attack it, improve it and then bring those improvements to the track. He drives the car and gives us a yes or no: ‘Yes it has improved’ or ‘No it hasn’t’ or ‘Yes it has improved here, but it has made it worse here’ and we go on that. He is an integral part in the development process. The driver steers us in the right direction. It is good to have two drivers with Sergio and Esteban, because we like to get two opinions.”
