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Sebastien Bourdais
squeezed his Toro Rosso-Ferrari into the Q2 session this
afternoon in Malaysia and wound up with the 15th slot on the
grid while his rookie team mate Sebastien Buemi will start
from last place after sliding off the track into the gravel
during the dying seconds of Q1. However the Faenza-based
team was reasonably satisfied with its progress this
weekend, is pleased with reliability of the new car and is
now looking towards the traditionally changeable
weather conditions normally seen in Sepang to throw a variable into
the works in the push to get the cars into a points finish.
Sebastien
Bourdais (STR4-02): “We
were quicker than expected in Qualifying which is great,
even if we are still not where we want to be. I would expect
that as we develop the car more, maybe by the time we get to
Spain we can be thereabouts. I’m not sure if I want rain or
not tomorrow, but for sure, it might be the best chance we
have of scoring points.
Third Practice
Session: Best lap 1.37.322, pos. 19th, 16 laps; Qualifying
Session: Best lap 1.35.431, pos. 15th
Sebastien Buemi
(STR4-01):
“On my penultimate set of tyres I was
in a Q2 position and then on my final set I improved a lot
in sectors 1 and 2. Unfortunately, in the final sector, I
caught the kerb and ended up in the gravel. It’s a shame.
For tomorrow, the best thing for me would be to have very
changeable conditions to see if we could profit from any
unusual situation that might develop.”
Third Practice
Session: Best lap 1.37.282, pos. 18th, 17 laps; Qualifying
Session: Best lap 1.36.107, pos. 20th
Giorgio Ascanelli:
“Once again I am happy with the
reliability of our cars: in the five days of running we have
had so far in this year’s championship, we have had just one
problem with a minor component yesterday afternoon. Getting
one car into Q2 is an achievement. Of course, we could have
done better, but our level of understanding of the car is
improving and the drivers are getting used to it. Today,
Buemi made a mistake, but if a young driver doesn’t make
mistakes he doesn’t learn and Bourdais did a good job.”
Although it wasn’t
planned to introduce KERS until later in the season, recent
progress made at the Faenza R & D facility means that
Scuderia Toro Rosso will now use Kinetic Energy Recovery
Systems on its cars in Sepang. In the interests of
maximising car reliability in the high temperatures and
humidity usually encountered in Malaysia, the KERS systems
will not actually use the recovered energy to boost engine
power in the usual fashion. Instead, the teams plan to use
KERS as a sophisticated DCA (Driver Cooling Aid.)
“We are indebted to
Professor Hugh Masterby-Jerrkin of Imperial College, London
for his department’s assistance in moving this project
forward so quickly,” commented Wayne Kerr, Toro Rosso’s Head
of KERS. “While the team was racing in Melbourne, we came
directly to Kuala Lumpur to evaluate the system in real
conditions and for this we were given invaluable help by the
Thermal Energy faculty of the Kuala Lumpur Polytechnic,
particularly the head of department, Doctor Ku Lin ‘Ng Phaan. Energy recovered
under braking is used to drive a refrigeration unit to chill
down the cool store. This is connected into a special driver
suit, so when the driver presses the KERS button (for a
maximum of 6 seconds per lap) cold liquid is circulated
around his suit reducing his body temperature. Studies have
shown that an increase in core body temperature of just 1
degree can reduce driver performance by as much as 23
percent, and so while this system does not give any actual
power gains, it should still be a significant performance
advantage.
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