Lotus continues to try out their new 'device' in Saturday practice. This system, which increases speed on straights, is in Kimi Räikkönen's car, whereas Romain Grosjean has the car's latest aeroupdate.
They don't much advertise the 'device' in Lotus. That much has become clear that it should not be compared to the so called DDRS-system. They built the DDRS-system last season.
They have tried out this 'device' earlier this season. Based upon Saturday practice it's decided whether Lotus will use it for the first time in qualification and race.
– We would not had built the whole device unless we would believe it improves our speed. It doesn't bring 10 km/h, but it helps in some places when it again punishes us in other places, Räikkönen summed up on Friday night.
Alan Permane found a lot of positives when Räikkönen was satisfied with the car's balance and the new system.
The morning in Silverstone is cloudy but the sun has already appeared. During GP3-qualification the weather and track was about 16 degrees.
Romain Grosjean will start from eighth on the grid and Kimi Räikkönen right behind him in ninth after today’s qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
After a promising Q1 session where the cars finished P3 and P4, Q2 and Q3 proved to be more difficult at the team’s local circuit. Kimi ran with a Device-equipped E21, whilst Romain ran with a new slimline bodywork package.
Kimi Räikkönen, E21-03. Q: P9, 1:30.962. FP3: P8, 1:32.459
“It was a close qualifying session between both of the team’s cars so I think we both got pretty much all there was from the car today. It’s not ideal as we’d like to be nearer the front of the grid, but it is what it is. We’ll go into the race wanting to get a better result than we did in qualifying. Usually this is what happens for us and and hopefully that is the case again tomorrow.”
“Whilst were very quick on the hard tyres at the beginning of qualifying, we weren’t as competitive on the mediums, I don’t know if it’s the weather or something else, but we weren’t as good on them as in free practice this morning meaning we didn’t have enough to qualify further up the grid. We are working hard and in the right direction, but the tyres are still playing a key part. I’m quite satisfied with my performance today.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“We’re reasonably happy with both cars in the top ten”
How was qualifying for the team? I’m reasonably happy with both cars making it into the top ten but, of course, we would have liked a bit more from today. Romain didn’t have a perfect last lap and suffered from understeer in Turn 15 whilst there didn’t seem to be much more pace in Kimi’s car.
How are the tyres working here? They seem to be quite close for us in terms of ultimate lap pace. We had quite a dilemma as to whether we should run Romain on the harder tyres in Q3 as he went very well on them in Q1. Other than that, both compounds are well suited to the demands of Silverstone and there should be a range of strategy permutations available tomorrow.
How’s the weather affecting the performance? Like many of the crew, the E21 certainly prefers warmer temperatures. The cloud cover today can mean a reasonable temperature drop, so we’re certainly hoping for clearer skies and a warmer track tomorrow.
ZitatRaikkonen to race passive DRS in the British Grand Prix
Lotus's passive drag reduction system will make its race debut in tomorrow's British Grand Prix on Kimi Raikkonen's car.
The team has been trying to make the system work since first trialling it in practice for last year's German GP.
But despite being confident in its potential at the launch of this year's car, this is the first time it has run on a race weekend in 2013.
Raikkonen used the system - reckoned to have the potential to increase top speed to allow more wing to be run for the corners without compromising pace on the straights - during qualifying, meaning it must run tomorrow.
The Finn, who was ninth fastest in qualifying, admitted that he had hoped for more from the design, but that there was nothing to be lost by running it.
"We hoped for a bit more from it but let's see how it behaves tomorrow and hopefully it helps us with the race pace.
"You always want more from new parts, but I guess we are where we are right now and hopefully we can go forward.
"If we never try things, we will never learn anything and we will never start using it.
"I don't really see that we have much to lose because without trying something new and finding a chunk of time we will not catch the guys in front of us."
Silverstone is an obvious choice for trialling the passive DRS because of the number of high-speed straights.
The design uses a fluid switch to redirect airflow to stall the rear wing once the car hits a specific speed.
But the team has struggled to consistently get the switch to de-activate when the car decelerates, leading to the potential problem that a car could lack rear downforce when a driver first hits the brakes for a corner.
Talking to AUTOSPORT at the launch of the Lotus E21, then-technical director James Allison, explained that it was easier to make the design work at certain track configurations.
"It all depends on how good we are engineering it," said Allison of how often the device could be used.
"It's possible to imagine it being useful at every circuit. If we do a less good job than that, then it will only be at certain circuits, like Spa, where even a relatively crudely placed switch can bludgeon its way to a decent gain."
Zitat von miezicat How was qualifying for the team? I’m reasonably happy with both cars making it into the top ten but, of course, we would have liked a bit more from today. Romain didn’t have a perfect last lap and suffered from understeer in Turn 15 whilst there didn’t seem to be much more pace in Kimi’s car.
This situation can only be qualified as really dumb.
So Grosjean makes a mistakes and he still qualifies 8th, whereas Kimi did everything he could but qualifies 9th.
If Grosjean can qualify 8th with his new updates then Kimi could have been 5th or 6th. You have a second driver so that you can experiment, Ferrari would never give Alonso such experimental devices, they would first use Massa to make sure it works. The PDRS is just not working, they made the same mistake with Kimi 3 times before last season as well. This is just so frustrating.
Yep lest's have test (shitty tests) by Mr Crash and leave Kimi in peace so that he can hopefully manage some point tomorrow or do you wish him to go to RB Mr Boullier ????
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Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:11 pm
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And even Steve can't help smiling at the sight of Kimi's hair 
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