Italian GP Benetton Preview

Mild Seven Benetton Team Italian GP / Preview 4 September 1998 _________________________________________________________________

Pat Symonds, Technical Director of the Mild Seven Benetton Playlife team:

THE CIRCUIT:

"Monza, along with Silverstone, is a circuit we regard as our home grand prix, it is a very fast track with extremely low downforce and very little grip. The car has to be able to use the kerbs well, although modifications to the circuit this year mean the cars cannot climb over the kerbs like they used to. It is a circuit where engine power is very important, yet the engine must be very driveable to come out of the slow chicanes well. The set-up is difficult for the driver as we need to look for a compromise of getting the most mechanical grip we can on a very low downforce setting while keeping the suspension soft enough to be able to use the kerbs well. Last year we had pole position and led half the race, so we have had good results at this circuit in the past. Testing this week has shown that we should be competitive again this year."

THE CARS:

"For this race we are introducing a new aerodynamic package which consists of new rear body work and diffuser and further modifications to the front wing. This has proved very successful in testing this week and will be on the cars for the race weekend. Recently we have been concentrating our development on the new wider Bridgestone that was introduced for Hungary and have made significant alterations to our car to accommodate this tyre. In back to back testing we found the wide tyre to give our cars a significant performance advantage. However we have had to fall in line with McLaren's wishes to run the narrow tyre here at Monza."

TESTING:

"We spent four days testing at Monza this week covering a huge number of miles. We did a lot of tyre testing and concentrated on the set-up of the car."