Formula 1
European GP: Renault Friday practice notes
The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a trouble-free, busy opening day of practice for the 2007 European Grand Prix this weekend at the Nurburgring. Giancarlo and Heikki completed busy programmes in both the morning and afternoon sessions, conducting ...
Edited: Jul 21, 2007, 2:15 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The ING Renault F1 Team enjoyed a trouble-free, busy opening day of practice for the 2007 European Grand Prix this weekend at the Nurburgring. Giancarlo and Heikki completed busy programmes in both the morning and afternoon sessions, conducting baseline set-up work, comparing the two tyre types available and assessing the new aerodynamic package available to the team this weekend.
As always, the programmes focused on race preparations on heavy fuel loads but unusually, the drivers did not get clean, flying laps on soft tyres at the end of the session, unlike many other competitors. Therefore, while the headline times may seem unimpressive, the team is satisfied with its day's work and confident that after rigorous overnight analysis, it will transform these preparations into a competitive qualifying performance tomorrow.
Giancarlo Fisichella:
"It was a normal Friday for us. As usual, we did our race preparation today, working to find a good baseline set-up for Sunday, and to look at the tyres. There is still some work to do overnight to get the balance right, and we need to improve our competitiveness a little bit too. But we have seen many times this season, that we are a little far away on Friday -- and more competitive in qualifying and the race. We did our job today, and completed our programme. Now we need to follow our plans and analyse the data in order to achieve a good level of competitiveness in qualifying tomorrow.
Heikki Kovalainen:
"The main thing for us today was to do our usual tyre comparison, which we managed and got a good answer from. The set-up programme was busy too, and while not all the changes were positive today, we have found the direction to go in for tomorrow. The car is not as stable as usual at the moment, so we need to improve that area to find more lap-time. The job now is to get our heads down, understand where we can make the car better for tomorrow's practice session, and to have a trouble-free morning to prepare for qualifying."
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering:
"Just as we found last year, grip levels during first practice were extremely low, and it was very difficult to get the car working well in those conditions. Fortunately, the heavy rain at lunchtime did not affect our programmes too much, and the car was working much better in second practice. As usual, we remained on a high fuel load throughout the day, as we looked at the behaviour of the two types of tyre and evaluated our new aero package."
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations:
"Moving into the second half of the season, our technical programmes for Friday practice are well-established, especially at a circuit we know well such as the Nurburgring. We had anticipated disrupted running after seeing heavy rain forecast but, in the end, it had minimal impact on our work and the atmospheric conditions were within normal limits."
"This circuit presents the unusual characteristic of being situated at altitude, which in fact makes life easier for certain moving parts of the engine, but our work focused, as usual, on optimising areas such as engine mapping and gear ratios. The day went smoothly, with no problems, and we have a good basis from which to fine-tune our performance ahead of qualifying."
Giancarlo Fisichella
Chassis: R27-05
Free Practice 1: 19th, 1:35.077, 22 laps
Free Practice 2: 15th, 1:34.431, 28 laps
Heikki Kovalainen
Chassis: R27-02, T-car
Free Practice 1: 18th, 1:34.921, 21 laps
Free Practice 2: 16th, 1:34.446, 25 laps
-credit: renault
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article European GP: Honda Friday practice notes
Next article European GP: Friday press conference
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Giancarlo Fisichella
Which modern Formula 1 driver raced for the most teams?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Which modern Formula 1 driver raced for the most teams?
How Jordan took its last F1 victory on this day in 2003
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brazilian GP
How Jordan took its last F1 victory on this day in 2003
On this day in 2005: Kimi Raikkonen’s Suzuka masterclass
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
On this day in 2005: Kimi Raikkonen’s Suzuka masterclass
More from
Renault F1 Team
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brazilian GP
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
“I went back to the car and cried” – Esteban Ocon opens up about his unexpected year on F1 sidelines
Formula 1
Formula 1
“I went back to the car and cried” – Esteban Ocon opens up about his unexpected year on F1 sidelines
You Ask The Questions: Robert Kubica
Formula 1
You Ask The Questions: Robert Kubica
Latest news
Cleetus McFarland set to compete full-time for 2027 ARCA championship
ARCA
ARCA ARCA 1 h
Cleetus McFarland set to compete full-time for 2027 ARCA championship
IndyCar veteran Sting Ray Robb secures United Autosports Asian Le Mans seat
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 h
IndyCar veteran Sting Ray Robb secures United Autosports Asian Le Mans seat
Five things to look out for at the F1 Mexico GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
6 h
Five things to look out for at the F1 Mexico GP
Every time NASCAR took a win away due yellow line violations
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
6 h
Every time NASCAR took a win away due yellow line violations
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe