Thank you, as always, for your support over the weekend. The F1 World Championship brought the battle to the Southern Hemisphere for Round 16, the Brazilian Grand Prix. The weather in Sao Paolo was even more uncooperative than in past years, presenting a very difficult set of circumstances for racing. Without further ado, here is my report from the Brazilian Grand Prix, conducted at the famous Interlagos Circuit.
Further tests detect a spinal injury in Timo; Kamui steps in for a grand prix debut
Before I begin my Brazilian GP race report, I have to make an announcement. As you know, our normal driving pair of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock was replaced by Jarno and Kamui Kobayashi, who took Timo’s place. After crashing in Japanese GP qualifying, Timo returned to Germany to undergo further detailed testing, which uncovered a spinal injury. Accordingly, we held Timo out of the Brazilian GP, replacing him with reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi.
Kamui substituted for Timo during Friday free practice at the Japanese GP when Timo was feeling under the weather. At that time, we left the car setup for Timo, planning that Kamui would only be driving for a few hours on Friday. But with Kamui driving all three days this week, we adjusted the steering and other components to his preferences. In every sense, this was Kamui’s true coming-out party in F1. I had every expectation that Kamui would make the most of his long-awaited chance.
Setup work progresses smoothly for Jarno on one of his best courses; Kamui finishes an error-free day one
Rain showers created difficulties on track. With conditions changing several times during each session, Kamui had a frustrating experience with his car setup work. Even so, Kamui delivered an error-free performance, demonstrating his ability to compete on the circuit.
We didn’t make any setup changes for Kamui on Friday morning practice, letting him drive as many laps as possible to get used to the car and to his first experience with the Interlagos Circuit. We started setup work for Kamui during Friday afternoon practice, having him drive a series of Saturday qualifying simulations. I think Kamui was less than happy with his day one, being impatient with the setup work, and fighting the rain during his time attack laps. Even so, he kept the car on the track and drove an error-free day, despite so many drivers spinning off course due to the intermittent rain showers. Kamui’s performance was once again well received by team personnel.
Having secured a front-row qualifying in last year’s Brazilian GP, Jarno enjoyed a smooth setup process, scoring P6 on the afternoon time charts. The Interlagos Circuit has characteristics very similar to Suzuka, requiring only a little less downforce aerodynamically speaking. Since the TF109 performed so well in Japan two weeks ago, we believed that we could adopt our Suzuka Special package in Brazil to similar effect.
Despite a long drawn-out qualifying with several red-flag interruptions, Toyota drivers maintain concentration and secure P4, P11 on the starting grid
Interrupted numerous times by rain and red flags, Brazilian GP qualifying was conducted over an extended period of time. Never losing his focus, Jarno moved through Q1 and Q2 into the final qualifying period. In Q3, Jarno secured a P4 grid spot on intermediate (shallow grooved) tires.
Official qualifying for this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix was conducted under very difficult circumstances, interrupted several times by red flags. Still, Jarno pulled out a P4 qualifying performance. Kamui missed out advancing to Q3 by the slimmest of margins, but securing a P11 grid spot in his first grand prix—under wet conditions at that—further raised his stock in the eyes of the team.
The frustrating part was that both drivers should have actually qualified even higher, except for some unlucky conditions. Kamui was running in the top 10 during Q2 before being edged out. In his last attack run, Kamui’s car slid on a puddle in Turn 3, which kept him from improving on his prior time. Without that incident, Kamui definitely would have advanced to Q3 as one of the top 10 drivers, especially considering the fact that he recorded his fastest Sector 2 time during that run.
Meanwhile, just prior to his final attack lap, Jarno had to slow down slightly to maintain a gap with Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP) who was ahead on the track. The drop in speed cost Jarno the chance to make it through the control line before the checkered flag, and he wasn’t able to take another hot lap. Despite the bad breaks, both drivers delivered strong, error-free performances in qualifying, fighting rain and an especially long session that lasted two hours and forty-one minutes due to a continuous series of stoppages.
Having won two consecutive podium finishes at Singapore and Suzuka under dry conditions, we also proved that the TF109 was competitive in the rain during Saturday’s qualifying. Our goal for Sunday was to make a team-record third consecutive podium.
Jarno retires due to an unlucky collision; Kamui drives an aggressive race
The TF109 was in fantastic form, competing well with the other teams during the first stint of the race. After changing tires during the first pit stop, the balance of the car seemed to alter. The problem caused a loss of speed for Kamui. Still, the young driver continued to attack, taking the checkered flag with a top 10 finish.
From P4 on the starting grid, Jarno was on the dirty inside lane. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) was behind and to outside of Jarno, starting from P5. Raikkonen took the spot from Jarno, but compared to the other drives who started from the inside lane, Jarno had a decent getaway.
Turn 6 is where the damage was done. Raikkonen’s car was experiencing some problems due to contact in Turn 4. Adrian Sutil (Force India) attempted to overtake the Ferrari driver, but was taking some time to do it. Seeing an opening, Jarno pulled up outside Sutil in Turn 5, but unfortunately, the cars came into contact with each other. Considering fuel loads, I think Jarno had every chance to make it to the podium on Sunday’s race.
This incident left Kamui as the only Panasonic Toyota Racing car in the Brazilian GP. Kamui took up the challenge, driving an aggressive race on behalf of Jarno and the team. In particular, Kamui drove like a prize fighter during the first stint after the safety car left the course, while the pit crew in the garage was drawn up in the spirit watching our race strategy unfold.
Naturally, being his first-ever race, we saw room for improvement in tire usage and pit stop accuracy, but Kamui performed much better than we had a right to expect.
The next race will be the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix—the final race of the 2009 season. As the last race of the year, everyone at Panasonic Toyota Racing will be sparing no effort to put in a performance worthy of our loyal fans. Please cheer us on.
Noritoshi Arai at Interlagos. Despite high confidence in the performance of the TF109, unstable weather conditions and bad luck combined to keep the team from scoring a third-consecutive podium finish. Wrapping up the 2009 season in Abu Dhabi, everyone at Panasonic Toyota Racing will be doing their utmost for a strong result!
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