- 9/10/2024
The 2nd Friday Practice session for Round 14 of the 2008 F1 season at Monza.
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00:00:00Right now, boys, right now, victory for the first time in his career.
00:00:25Come on, mate, he's ruining our race.
00:00:26Let's get past him.
00:00:27He's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:00:34to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:00:41going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:00:47he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:00:52to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:00:56going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:01:00win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:04going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:01:08he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:01:12to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:16going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:01:20win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:24going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:01:28he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:01:32to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:36going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:01:40he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:01:44to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:48going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:01:52win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:01:56going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:00win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:04going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:08win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:12going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:16win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:20going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:24win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:28going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:32win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:36going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:40win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:44going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:48win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:02:52going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:02:56win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:00going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:04win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:08going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:12win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:16going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:20win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:24going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:28win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:32going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:36win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:40going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:03:44win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:03:48going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:03:52he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:03:56to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:00going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:04:04he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:04:08to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:12going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:04:16he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:04:20to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:24going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:04:28he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:04:32to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:36going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:04:40win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:44going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win,
00:04:48he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going
00:04:52to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:04:56going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:05:00win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:05:04going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:05:08win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:05:12going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:05:16win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:05:20going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:05:24win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:05:28going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to
00:05:32win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win, he's
00:05:36going to win, he's going to win, he's going to win.
00:05:39The Caraballica slinging onto the front straight away.
00:05:42It's incredible how fast the weather conditions are changing here at Monza, but these conditions,
00:05:46these very heavy storms, and then they blow away and out comes the sun.
00:05:50Those weather conditions are all over Europe right now, whether it's in Italy, France,
00:05:54or England, it's the same weather conditions.
00:05:56It is very typical.
00:05:58Weather in Northern Italy this time of year, August, September, can be very changeable.
00:06:03storms. 10 minutes later, you wouldn't know it's been raining at all. Michael Schumacher,
00:06:08whose retirement was announced at this very racetrack. Is that Ralph's brother?
00:06:13Yes, it's the brother of the famous Ralph Schumacher. Yeah, that would be it.
00:06:18Jimmy Raikkonen coming out. But these weather conditions, guys, are going to be very critical.
00:06:26More so, not that the rain's going to affect everybody, but what I'm interested to see
00:06:29is the temperature change. I mean, Ferrari will be hoping that it gets a lot hotter than it was
00:06:35in Spa because their tires will work a lot better. The Ferrari doesn't like cold temperatures on its
00:06:41tires and doesn't like the harder of the two compounds anyway. Conversely, McLaren seem to
00:06:48be able to use those soft tires and they get the car to work very well around Monza. You remember
00:06:53last year that Ferrari were complaining that they couldn't get the car to work around the curbs here
00:06:58at Monza, which of course they need to do. It's going to be very interesting. The weather,
00:07:02the temperature is going to play a lot. A big factor, I think, in the performance of these
00:07:07two teams going for the championship. Funny we should see Sebastian Bourdain,
00:07:11Kimi Raikkonen back-to-back in the Thursday FIA press conference. Seabass was involved,
00:07:16there was much back slapping. Everybody at Toro Rosso Ferrari loves Sebastian Bourdain now.
00:07:21He may have saved his job with that race. At one point he was in position for a podium finish,
00:07:26wound up seventh in that rain-washed chaos at the end of the race. But Seabass said he was
00:07:31pulling out of the pit lane and his engineer got on and said, okay, you're going to be looking for
00:07:35Kimi Raikkonen. You're racing him for the third spot on the podium. And Bourdain said, I'm doing
00:07:41what? That's right. Are you sure? Something wrong with the radio. That can't be right.
00:07:46Yeah.
00:07:54Lupe Massa said Ferrari worked very hard on the suspension, getting ready for the Monza curves.
00:08:00They're a very unusual curve at Monza. They're not particularly high,
00:08:03they're not aggressive in the same way that they are at Spa. They're flat, but they have a very
00:08:08unusual shape to them. It's very difficult to get the car to react over them because you have
00:08:14to pimp so much of them. You have to use a lot of the curve around you. Last year, right there,
00:08:19Kimi Raikkonen in practice had that huge crash when he suddenly veered off to the right, didn't
00:08:23he? Yeah, they thought it was probably steering broke. Looking from the still photographs later,
00:08:29it looked that way, but you're right, they had. And Kimi Raikkonen, if you remember that incident,
00:08:33was very quick to deny, no, no, no, no, there's no problem really with the mechanics of the car.
00:08:37We just, uh, well, we just had a failure. But it wasn't me. We'll show you that crash in just a
00:08:43moment. Raikkonen admitted recently that was a much bigger hit than he let on at the time. He was
00:08:50really, really woozy, had his bell rung. Let's take another look at it now.
00:08:57Just entering the Ascari chicane, the car just snaps right and right into an unprotected wall.
00:09:02Wow. And then into a protected one, which might have been worse.
00:09:05See, that's how the car turns right.
00:09:10And you even saw him correct. Well, you could actually see him getting his head over, setting
00:09:15up to go for the left-hand part of the circuit. You can see him just hunched down there, getting
00:09:20ready to go left, and the car just suddenly shot right. Yeah, watch the steering input here.
00:09:25Keep your eye on the front wheels, of course.
00:09:29There's a break in the video just at the wrong place.
00:09:33And that was a big impact with the tire. It was.
00:09:37Well, that'll happen to you at Monza. I mean, this track is very, very fast. It's all about
00:09:44engine power. Of course, you need good brakes, too, when you need them. But in particular,
00:09:47it's like 80 percent of the lap is on full throttle. A real classic track, Monza. And
00:09:54when you look at the track map of Monza, there's probably, well, you can give it 11 corners at max.
00:09:59Compare that to the 25 corners that we saw at Valencia, Bob. You were saying that when we're
00:10:03looking at the Valencia track, how many corners there are. You only need what, somewhere between
00:10:07eight and eleven, depends on your terminology of what makes a corner, really. Yeah, but I mean,
00:10:11just one of the all-time classic tracks. Just saw Sebastian Vettel straight lining the chicane in the
00:10:18Toro Rosso Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen, no better than sixth on his first lap, moves up to P1
00:10:25on his second hot lap. And getting increasingly hotter at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.
00:10:32We'll take a break and return with more live coverage of Friday practice from Italy. Stay with
00:10:37us. Speed's coverage of the FIA Formula One World Championship is brought to you by Bridgestone,
00:10:45passion for excellence, and by Valvoline, 100 years under the hood.
00:10:49Welcome back live to Monza. Friday practice continues. Bob Varsha, Steve Matchett, David
00:10:59Hobbs, Peter Windsor with you, and we're watching the best two out of three falls throwdown match
00:11:03between Sebastian Vettel and his Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari. He has been on and off the track,
00:11:09going quickly when he can, but as you can see, though, the line is drying. It's still
00:11:13very damp near the curbs. Yeah, very damp, very damp under those trees. The sun is shining pretty
00:11:19strongly and the temperature is rocketing up, so it will dry out pretty quickly, but
00:11:26obviously the harder you try, you know, you get a bit offline and suddenly it's going to be
00:11:30really damp down to the parabolic here. It looks pretty dry all over now. Even if he goes to the
00:11:37top of the charts, I don't think this lap will count. He straight-lined at least one of the
00:11:41chicanes. Yeah. Yeah, you see how fast the track is drying, as you guys are saying, because there
00:11:46are no trees around that part of the track, around the parabolic. It's relatively open,
00:11:52but it is very wet. As you come out of Lesmo and on the dive down towards the
00:11:57Ascari chicane, you're right through that corridor of trees. There's no way really for the sun to get
00:12:03to dry the track out yet. Right. It's a bit like the old Hockenheim in that way. The trees shadow
00:12:07the track. Yeah, very good point. There's a look in the Toyota garage. Timo Glock still seething
00:12:13after his 25-second penalty in Belgium last week for passing under the yellow flags, which,
00:12:19frankly, and we'll talk about this more during Formula One debrief tonight,
00:12:24frankly, just about everybody passed under the yellow flags at one point or another in that race.
00:12:30Kimi comes around and firms up. He won on the time charts. Let's turn to our BMW track analysis.
00:12:36Tell us about Manza, David. Well, 11 turns, 3.6 miles, very little elevation change. There you see
00:12:41the first corner there, which is that little tiny chicane. And we're going to see a lot of people
00:12:47doing the same thing there as happened at the bus stop at Spa. People do go around the inside there,
00:12:51cut the corner and have to give the position back. Very anti-Della Roggia, the first chicane to slow
00:12:55them down before the two Lesmos. Two very fast right-hand corners, all very different to what
00:13:01it used to be. Trees used to be right at the edge of the road, not anymore. Then you work your way
00:13:05back up there through that Curva del Seraglio up to the Curva del Vialone, which is another chicane.
00:13:13But that's the bit where the trees are over the track. That Curva del Vialone, that's where
00:13:18Raikkonen went off last year. Very, very quick left, right, left. Then the Variante Scali,
00:13:23as you exit that down to the Parabolica. The Parabolica here, very important corner. As you
00:13:28can see, it's a very long corner. It's a very high speed corner, puts a lot of heat in those left side
00:13:32tires. But of course, it's essential to get into a position to outbrake somebody right here for
00:13:38the hairpin. So you want to come out that Curva Parabolica right behind somebody if you want to
00:13:43get by him. Watching Rubens Barrichello, there's a look at the running order. Of course, the big thing here,
00:13:50you can see the size of the wing on his car there. Obviously, no wing. Lap speed here at 160 odd miles an hour.
00:13:58So it's a very fast track. Ferrari power in the top three cars. In fact, three of the top six.
00:14:04Felipe Massa currently in sixth spot. As you were saying, Dave, ultra low downforce configuration
00:14:11on the cars. And the cars are built with special wings, front and rear, that be used just for this
00:14:18one weekend alone. Incredible expense, but there we are. That's Formula One for you.
00:14:24No one ever said it was going to be cheap, did they? That's right.
00:14:28No rear wing at all, basically, because the sponsors absolutely hate it, I'm sure, because
00:14:34the locals don't get recognized. He's got to get that drag down, though. This is out that Variante
00:14:39Ascari, down that long straight, very wet on the exit there, but that's drawing up quickly.
00:14:44Down to the Parabolica. Fastest through the speed traps right now. Sebastian Bordet, 206 miles an hour.
00:14:53It was here at Monza that Antonio Pizogna, in a Williams a few years ago,
00:15:00went through the speed trap at the fastest speed clocked at a regular racing circuit
00:15:05by a Formula One car, nearly 230 miles an hour. Right along with Felipe Massa at Monza.
00:16:23Okay, imagine you are Felipe Massa, and you're just flying around there, maybe hitting 200, 202
00:16:33miles per hour. Imagine what it's like going 257 miles an hour. Young Alan Vandemerve with a V10
00:16:43Honda-powered car at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 2005, 257.9 miles an hour.
00:16:54Bob down here in the Ferrari garage. Of course, the usual excitement and anticipation around this
00:17:00scene, this amazing scene at Monza, up on the pit wall. Six seats there. Michael Schumacher doesn't
00:17:04have his own dedicated seat, but he's up there, and he's got his hand resting on the railing,
00:17:08just sniffing around, having a look and see what's going on. And the usual Monza atmosphere,
00:17:12long periods of silence, and then a car blasting past you at full throttle on the straight. You
00:17:17only really get that contrast here at Monza. Friday, of course, the day that traditionally
00:17:22Enzo Ferrari, El Comendatore, used to come to the Italian Grand Prix, only on the Friday. And that,
00:17:28legend says, goes way back to 1934, when a young driver called Guy Moll, a very talented
00:17:34young driver, was killed in the Pescara Grand Prix, apparently because he was driving for Enzo
00:17:38at the time, but long before Enzo became a constructor, just Enzo's race team. But he was
00:17:42urging Guy on, pushing him on from the pit wall, waving him on, and then the following lap, Guy
00:17:47met his death. And ever since, Enzo said he never trusted himself not to get too emotional on the
00:17:52pit wall, so he stayed away from races and came here only on Friday. But a wonderful scene here,
00:17:57Ferrari in their element. You've got to say, in reality, that with this sort of car on this sort
00:18:01of circuit, home territory with McLaren, possibly in a bit of disarray as a result of the shenanigans
00:18:06of Spa, if Ferrari don't win here, a lot of questions are going to be asked. Peter, let me
00:18:11ask you a quick question. With Michael Schumacher on hand, I don't think I have seen Michael quoted
00:18:17on the events of Belgium at all. Have you heard anything this weekend from the former champ?
00:18:23No, I have not. That's a good point you raise, Bob. Although, judging by all the drivers and
00:18:29team owners who have been asked by the press to give comments, guess what? All their comments
00:18:33are directly related to their relationship with McLaren and or Ferrari and or Lewis Hamilton. In
00:18:38other words, all the drivers are negative because most of them either don't like Lewis or envy of
00:18:44his success and therefore pretty negative. And the teams that don't get on with Ferrari are pro
00:18:49McLaren and the teams that do are very pro Ferrari. So guess what? Formula One's very
00:18:53political. What a surprise. I never would have thought. They're saying that the McLaren Mercedes
00:19:00team appeal will be heard before the month is out. And we'll have much more, as I mentioned
00:19:08earlier, on Formula One debrief tonight here on Speed Midnight Easter. So don't miss that.
00:19:13Meanwhile, there goes Sebastian Bordet, much more comfortable with his Toro Rosso
00:19:17Ferrari and the team apparently much more happy with him. We'll be back.
00:19:30In 1960, Phil Hill became the first American to win a Formula One Grand Prix with a victory
00:19:36at Monza. The following year, he'll won again over Dan Gurney's Porsche in a rare American
00:19:41one-two sweep. But tragically, during the race, Hill's teammate, Wolfgang von Trips,
00:19:46was killed in an accident. Unaware of his teammate's condition, Hill raced on to the victory
00:19:51and the world championship in the process. Of course, Phil Hill laid to rest in California
00:19:57this past Wednesday. Welcome back to our live coverage of the second Friday practice
00:20:03in preparation for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, wrapping up the European portion of the season
00:20:07before we head to the Pacific Rim and then on to Brazil for the final four races of 2008.
00:20:13I'm Bob Marchese, David Hopps, Steve Matchett, Peter Windsor with you. No change
00:20:17on the timesheet. Sebastian Bordet and his Toro Rosso Ferrari went out on dry tires
00:20:25but was unable to post a significant time. Riding with Nico Rosberg on, looks like, Intermediates.
00:20:31Yeah, he is. He's on the Intermediate tires. You can see how much Rosberg is still
00:20:34struggling with the, with the rain on the track, which, uh, of course, gives some information on,
00:20:40on the dry weather tires that Bordet's put on the car. He's really having to be careful at the
00:20:46moment. Everybody's watching his times, of course, because they want to know how much the dry line
00:20:50is improving around the track. But certainly the back half of the track on the rundown to Ascari
00:20:55is still very, very slick. It is, and Rosberg taking no chances. He's very, uh, positive about
00:21:02this weekend. He thinks that this is going to be, uh, a good track for them. There's Mark Webber,
00:21:09the Australian driver. He'll be all right. All right, only one car on track, along with Rosberg,
00:21:19Sebastian Bordet. As you look at Mark Webber's stats, we want to take you back to last weekend
00:21:24in Belgium. Key moment of the race, the one the officials picked out as the violation by Lewis
00:21:28Hamilton. There they are, wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari. McLaren edges over to the left of the
00:21:33track, and then Hamilton turns left, shortcutting the chicane, knowing he needs to give up the
00:21:38position. He slows. The Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen goes by. Then Lewis ducks into his slipstream.
00:21:45Kimi tries to throw the block. Hamilton goes down the inside. Räikkönen tries to respond, winds up
00:21:50running to the back of Hamilton's car, and off down the hill they went. But officials decided that
00:21:57because Hamilton cuts the chicane right here, that he would be penalized. The whole thing is a very
00:22:04strange ruling. It's because they, at this point here, Kimi Räikkönen is definitely edging him out.
00:22:09You can see there's no lock on his wheels at all. He is pushing Hamilton over,
00:22:14who finally peels off there. As you can see, there's no room between. This is after the race.
00:22:20Davey Ryan on the right, team manager at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton walking to the officials room to
00:22:26talk with race control. Kimi Räikkönen also was brought to race control. Ferrari insisted they did
00:22:33not protest the finish. They did not file a protest. So all the action was taken at the discretion of
00:22:39the officials. Now, that can happen either through FIA race director Charlie Whiting asking the
00:22:44stewards for help or the stewards asking on their own initiative. The McLaren team says they appealed
00:22:51to Charlie Whiting just after the incident took place and asked, did Lewis Hamilton obey the spirit
00:22:56as well as the letter of the rule by letting Kimi by and then repassing? And they say they were told
00:23:01on two occasions, yes, Hamilton acted appropriately. The stewards disagreed and they docked Hamilton
00:23:0925 seconds elapsed time, which dropped him from first to third. That story
00:23:15is still unfolding. Now, for more on the McLaren side, let's rejoin Peter Windsor.
00:23:21Well, Bob, still unfolding, but you wouldn't know it from the demeanor of Lewis Hamilton right now.
00:23:25He's just sitting at the back of the garage looking ultra cool, ultra relaxed. I was chatting
00:23:29earlier to his race engineer, Phil Pru, and I said, how's Lewis taking all this? And he said,
00:23:34the guy is just unbelievable. On Monday, he switched off his mobile phone. He switched
00:23:38off his laptop and he played some golf. And when Phil spoke to him on Tuesday, he said,
00:23:42how are you feeling, Lewis? He said, oh, I'm a bit down. I only shot 103. And that was Lewis's
00:23:48preparation for the Italian Grand Prix. Got to say right here, if he's taking up golf, we've got to
00:23:52get Tiger and Lewis together, two athletes on the world stage. And those two definitely need to be
00:23:57photographed together, if nothing else, in the near future. But a lot of laughter and Lewis
00:24:02just being very strong about all this. And I think I speak for most people when I say that
00:24:07that really struck to the core of what sporting athleticism is all about. Those two guys were
00:24:13racing. Lewis did exactly the right thing. And now they're just picking over phones and trying to
00:24:18define what is an advantage and how long should you give or re-give the advantage back to the
00:24:23other driver. And that can go on forever. And of course, both sides have their arguments. But
00:24:28for me anyway, Lewis did exactly the right thing and was a deserving winner of that Grand Prix.
00:24:33Just one other thing, Bob, we were talking earlier about Antonio Pizzonia. I don't think
00:24:37we've yet congratulated him on his partner, whose name escapes me, winning a gold medal in the
00:24:44Beijing Olympics. She won the long jump for Brazil. And that is Antonio Pizzonia's partner,
00:24:49with whom he has a lovely little baby girl. So congratulations to Antonio. A fantastic result.
00:24:54An unexpected one, really, I would guess. Congratulations indeed to Pizzonia.
00:25:01Had a cup of coffee in Formula One. Unlike that man, Sebastian Vettel, who appears to have a golden
00:25:06future in front of him. On Sunday morning, join David, Steve, Peter and me for live coverage of
00:25:13the Italian Grand Prix. We'll start at 7.30 a.m. Eastern with the Acura Prix Race Show on Sunday,
00:25:197.30 a.m. live here on Speed. And if you're up and around with your first cup of coffee,
00:25:25tune in at 6 a.m. Eastern time for all the action from the final round of the GP2 Championship
00:25:30here at Monza. Those boys practiced in those drenching conditions earlier. They delayed the
00:25:35practice, but they got it in, I believe. We'll see what happens in that great battle between
00:25:41Giorgio Pantano and Bruno Senna for the GP2 Championship. I think Bordet is probably about
00:25:48to take the top time, which of course all the team managers and all, oh no, he lost out on that last
00:25:53sector. He's on the dry tires. He was much quicker than anybody else, so sectors one and two, and I
00:25:57stick to all the team managers thinking, right, I better go out now. I should say so. We shall see
00:26:02groove dry tires when we return with a little under an hour remaining in the second Friday
00:26:08practice. Back live at Monza on board with Nelson Piquet in the Renault.
00:26:23Getting a hot lap on dry tires, the harder of the two Bridgestone compounds.
00:26:32Down to that very tight first chicane. He used a lot of kerb here, got to make a good exit. It's a
00:26:37long run down to the next chicane, about 202 miles an hour through the speed traps.
00:26:42This is the old Curva Grande, Curva Grandi.
00:26:46Pretty good there. You can see it's very wet on the inside line, still shadow from those trees.
00:27:12When they go into this lot here, there's quite a bit of water still on the track here, but everybody's
00:27:16decided to go for the dry tires now. Yeah, the track's dry. Look at it, there you can see,
00:27:21it's still a little bit greasy around here. So Bordet's last time through timing and scoring
00:27:25was a 1.32. We're about 10 seconds shy of a good dry time around here. From last year,
00:27:32a dry practice time around here is about 1.22, so they've still got to drop another 10 seconds, but
00:27:38it is dry and there's no question of that. But here we are, 35 minutes plus into the session
00:27:44and eight of the 12 drivers have yet to post a representative time.
00:27:53That group includes Glock, Hamilton, Trulli, Coulthard, Kubica, Alonso, Sutil and Fisichella.
00:28:00A little earlier on, we were talking about the wing configuration. Special wings built just for
00:28:05Monza. Well, here's a great shot they've given. This is a shot from the two extremes really on
00:28:10the Formula One calendar. The top of the shop here is Monaco. Very big, almost like a, you know,
00:28:17barn door. You can't get any bigger than that. Absolutely. And then down the bottom there,
00:28:22the very low downforce, low drag configuration on the Honda. So that'll give you an idea. And
00:28:26it's even cut around here, look, to just trim the downforce off as much as possible.
00:28:31That gives you an idea. And again, Monaco wings made just for Monaco and Monza wings made just for Monza.
00:28:37Is that a front wing on that, Williams?
00:28:41It's a bit scalloping, we haven't seen everywhere.
00:28:45So Glock does his first flying lap and jumps right to the top of the time sheet.
00:28:49The 31.5. Purple, fastest of all in that final time sector. Right now, Sebastian Vettel has gone purple.
00:28:57And he goes P1 by nearly a second. 130.6.
00:29:03And David, something we were talking about as far as well with trimming downforce off the car is,
00:29:07when you need brakes around Monza, boy, they really get a hammering because of the chicanes.
00:29:11But you have so little downforce on the car to help with stability on the brakes.
00:29:15Absolutely. This is another one of those compromised jobs. You know, you stop here about 30 seconds,
00:29:21Very high speed.
00:29:23It's a bit tricky, but it's only because the track is not dry evenly.
00:29:29Ascari is the worst place.
00:29:33And then comes the first desmo.
00:29:39And equally the exit of the first chicane.
00:29:43There's just a stripe of water at the entry of Parabolica, which makes it a bit dodgy.
00:29:49But the rest is getting mostly dry and it's just a confidence level, basically.
00:29:55Balance was not too bad.
00:29:59It feels like there is quite a big vibration at the rear of the car.
00:30:03Well, you can tell he's been working with English mechanics and he says it's a bit dodgy.
00:30:07Dodgy being a technical term.
00:30:09Yeah.
00:30:11I can't fault him for that. I do it myself, being around a lot of British accents.
00:30:15Here's the car under braking.
00:30:17Oh, not very stable under braking right there.
00:30:19I think Webber just...
00:30:21Well, to continue to underbrake, I think,
00:30:23I don't know.
00:30:25I don't know.
00:30:27Here's the car under braking.
00:30:29Oh, not very stable under braking right there.
00:30:31I think Webber just...
00:30:33Well, to continue, I thought, you know,
00:30:35there's about four places here where you could really do with a ton of downforce.
00:30:39That being one of them, coming into that chicane.
00:30:41You see Webber making his way through those obstacles.
00:30:43I got a lot of emails at SpeedTV.com asking, why don't they do that in Belgium?
00:30:47Just put something offline in the chicane so that you pay a penalty if you straight line it.
00:30:54Jenson Button goes to P1.
00:30:57This just in. Honda.
00:30:59Well...
00:31:01I'm not going to say it.
00:31:03We always knew they were quick.
00:31:05What I was going to say,
00:31:07well, they all picked up the Honda now because they're fast.
00:31:09When you see the mechanics cleaning the cars,
00:31:11and you see it all the while when the car is in the pit,
00:31:13you see two or three guys dive straight on it with a polished can and a rag.
00:31:17Yes, they want to get the car looking as nice as possible
00:31:20because of the sponsors' decals and stickers all over the car.
00:31:23But the other reason they're doing it
00:31:25is to clean just any little bits of David Hobb's famous clag
00:31:29and the little bits of rubber that can get trapped
00:31:32between the main plane and the flap on the front wing.
00:31:35Anything that will affect the aero-efficiency of the car.
00:31:38When you do that, even after a two or three lap run,
00:31:41you'll find there's little bits of rubber or debris that stick to the car.
00:31:44You've got to get that off as soon as you get the chance.
00:31:46Here's your leaderboard.
00:31:48Button, Glock, Vettel, Rosberg, Piquet.
00:31:52Yeah, that's something we don't see every weekend.
00:31:58Yeah, well, I think the big hitters, the McLaren and Ferraris,
00:32:01are just sitting there saying,
00:32:02well, let's just see how dry that line is going around Ascari
00:32:06with you boys running first.
00:32:10Sebastian Vettel up to P1 over Rosberg and Button.
00:32:14We're down to a 28.4.
00:32:16Rubens Bottichiello holds both the lap and pole record
00:32:19down around 121.
00:32:22And that's up around 160 miles an hour
00:32:25at average speed. Average speed for the racetrack.
00:32:35We've picked up Vettel.
00:32:36That's an indication of just something.
00:32:38You know, that stuff, when you get it over the wings,
00:32:40you've got to get it off.
00:32:41Vettel's just gone faster through the speed trap.
00:32:43209 miles an hour,
00:32:45which is why our directors picked up Vettel, I'm sure.
00:32:47Again, the speed is going up and the times are coming down
00:32:52as the sun comes out and the track gets warmer.
00:32:58Steve, with Toro Rosso going as well as they are
00:33:01and being in a position to bother a few of the other teams
00:33:06in Formula One, what sort of engines do you think Ferrari
00:33:08would have given them, bearing in mind they've got
00:33:10fresh engines here for Monza this weekend?
00:33:12Do you mean would they have given them the same spec
00:33:14as the engines that are sitting in their own cars?
00:33:17I would say so. Maybe even better.
00:33:20Well, they certainly are doing a great job at Toro Rosso
00:33:24and there's no question a large part of that
00:33:26must be down to the Ferrari engine.
00:33:27And again, I wouldn't be at all surprised
00:33:29if Red Bull Technologies are looking at the contract now
00:33:32with Ferrari and Renault and wondering whether or not
00:33:34it's possible to do a change.
00:33:35But of course, next year's car will have already been designed
00:33:38around the Renault engine, I'm guessing, right?
00:33:41There's not so much difference these days, of course,
00:33:43because of the engine regulations that they all have to be a V8.
00:33:46They all have to be, to an extent, pretty much identical.
00:33:49No, they're not identical, but there are a lot of restrictions
00:33:52on them. But of course, in the old days,
00:33:54when we had V8s versus V10s versus V12s,
00:33:57it really wasn't so easy to swap engines.
00:34:01It's easy to do it today, but I'm sure Red Bull are looking
00:34:04into that, the wording of the contract.
00:34:06And it's going to be even more complicated next year,
00:34:09I would think, when the kinetic energy recovery systems
00:34:12come on board, because every team is likely to have
00:34:15such a personal and such a distinctive driveline next year.
00:34:22Boy, it's going to be quite a chore to move it
00:34:24from one chassis to another.
00:34:27Kimi Raikkonen, the reigning world champion,
00:34:29but whose hopes appear to be fading.
00:34:32Nevertheless, the Iceman says he's going for race victories
00:34:35from here on out.
00:34:36He's having none of that talk that he should become
00:34:39Felipe Massa's wingman, the Brazilian.
00:34:41And the Ferrari team keeps saying the same thing.
00:34:43Oh, we're not going to win on it, number one.
00:34:46We wouldn't do that.
00:34:47Didn't they learn anything from the McLaren experience
00:34:49last year?
00:34:50They may be saying that, but I think the decision
00:34:52has probably already been taken, frankly.
00:34:54I think that's what would be called forked tongue speak.
00:34:59Timo Glock has his Toyota pushed back in the garage.
00:35:02He's all set for a run.
00:35:03Paul Kubica is on the fly here.
00:35:05There's something interesting going on here.
00:35:07There's been a lot of public yapping between Kubica
00:35:10and his team boss, Mario Tyson.
00:35:12Kubica's saying, oh, the team's been working very hard
00:35:14with Nick Heidfeld.
00:35:15I wish they'd work a little more with me.
00:35:17I mean, that's the kind of petulance we don't expect
00:35:19from Robert Kubica.
00:35:20But Mario Tyson spoke to a reporter
00:35:23and said it's all nonsense.
00:35:24We work with both of our drivers.
00:35:26I'm not sure what's going on there.
00:35:29Kubica's doing a good job.
00:35:30He's just going faster through the speed shop as well.
00:35:32Fastest overall, 213 miles an hour.
00:35:35You can see, again, very, very little wing
00:35:37on the BMW chassis.
00:35:40And this is a track, as we're saying, like at Spa,
00:35:44that the chassis and the track are suited here.
00:35:48So we expect BMW to be going very well.
00:35:51More than I thought.
00:35:53But you're right, Bob.
00:35:56The team works with both drivers.
00:35:58Sometimes the driver will feel a little bit out of place,
00:36:00especially, quite frankly, if his teammate
00:36:02is doing a good job.
00:36:03He has to come up with an explanation for it.
00:36:05And I think the last thing that some drivers want to do
00:36:07is blame themselves.
00:36:10I can't believe that would be true.
00:36:12Of course, unfortunately.
00:36:13We're reading media comments too,
00:36:15and so you have to take everything with a grain of salt.
00:36:17Sure, yeah.
00:36:20And that grain of salt, Bob,
00:36:22includes remembering that the question to Robert
00:36:25might have been Robert bearing in mind
00:36:27that BMW did a fantastic job
00:36:29getting Heifold onto the right tyres
00:36:31at the back end of the Belgian Grand Prix.
00:36:33Were you disappointed not to have been able to do the same thing?
00:36:35If you ask a question like that, Robert could easily say,
00:36:37well, you know, I wish they'd put the same effort into me.
00:36:39And then that quote can be taken out of context.
00:36:41And we should always remember how the press
00:36:43always will try to get the...
00:36:45Well, not all the press, but some of the press.
00:36:47Spenando Alonso does a little bit of wheel waggling.
00:36:49Now, that's a particular chicane where Renault
00:36:51are normally very, very good, and he uses a lot of kerb there.
00:36:53We should watch for that in the drive.
00:36:55But anyway, just saying, a lot of the questions on the press,
00:36:57of course, are loaded, but not from the speed channel, guys.
00:36:59No, no.
00:37:01We promise.
00:37:06It is interesting to be Kimi,
00:37:08and recapping our top story coming in,
00:37:10Ferrari announced this weekend, as they traditionally do at Monza,
00:37:13that their driver line-up is set.
00:37:15It is Raikkonen and Massa,
00:37:17all right, or Massa and Raikkonen,
00:37:19through the end of the 2010 season.
00:37:22So two more years for the dynamic duo at the Scuderia.
00:37:26We'll take a break and return to their home track.
00:37:34Speed's coverage of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship
00:37:37is brought to you by Mazda.
00:37:39On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas road-raced
00:37:42than any other brand.
00:37:46Welcome back to Monza.
00:37:48On board with Felipe Massa.
00:37:50The times are coming down.
00:37:52Barely 25 minutes ago,
00:37:54Sebastian Bordet was P1 in the session,
00:37:57with a lap at 1.32.
00:37:59Until just about 60 seconds ago,
00:38:01that was 20th and slowest.
00:38:03We are now down to a 1.25.3 from Felipe Massa.
00:38:07Robert Kubica comes around,
00:38:09makes it a 1.25.1.
00:38:17He was quickest only in sector 1 of 3.
00:38:22Using those curbs.
00:38:24Rotating the car on the curbs.
00:38:28Yeah, he clipped that sleeping police on that one.
00:38:30It was just a little bit too deep.
00:38:32Well, I looked at the rear wings earlier on.
00:38:34We've clipped a couple of shots off of the BMW
00:38:36to have a look at the front wing arrangement on the car.
00:38:38This is how the car was set up for Spa.
00:38:40You can see with this rather what has become
00:38:42a kind of traditional deep scoop
00:38:44onto the centre section of the front wing.
00:38:46This is obviously the configuration
00:38:48as we're running right here in Monza right now.
00:38:50It's a much lower downforce configuration
00:38:53on the car there to try and get the drag off the car.
00:38:56It's as much about getting the drag off the car
00:38:59than it is about running minimal downforce
00:39:01because, as you were saying earlier on, Bob,
00:39:03the easiest way really to get minimum drag
00:39:06would be to just take the wing off.
00:39:08That'll certainly get the downforce off the car,
00:39:11but you need to clean the airflow.
00:39:13You need to get the drag.
00:39:15For those unfamiliar with the confusion
00:39:17over drag over downforce,
00:39:19drag is just the resistance of the car
00:39:21pushing itself through the air.
00:39:23As all the air molecules build up
00:39:25and back up against each other effectively,
00:39:27you've got to get the air to flow evenly out of the way.
00:39:30All you have to do is stick your hand
00:39:32out the car window on the highway
00:39:34and you get an idea of how important aerodynamics can be.
00:39:36Drag is one of those things that goes up exponentially.
00:39:38If you want to go 200 miles an hour
00:39:40as opposed to 100 miles an hour,
00:39:42you don't need twice the power you need
00:39:44like four times that.
00:39:46Maybe just a little bit more downforce.
00:39:48That's what they call a spin.
00:39:50Yeah. Well, that probably, David,
00:39:52is what we were talking about earlier on,
00:39:54the stability under braking or lack of
00:39:56because you take the wing off the car.
00:39:58But you're right, Bob.
00:40:00Putting your hand out of the car
00:40:02when you can do it safely, I should ask,
00:40:04will give you a great idea of exactly how wings work.
00:40:06Just move your hand up and down in the airflow.
00:40:09Look at Kubica's spin.
00:40:11Looks like he got on the curb driver right going in,
00:40:13and that's all it took.
00:40:16Watch this.
00:40:18Up on the curb.
00:40:20Didn't take much, did it? No, it didn't.
00:40:22But, of course, he's still braking at that point.
00:40:24You know, braking right to the apex.
00:40:26And, of course, with that little tiny wing,
00:40:28he's having no rear downforce.
00:40:30But, again, look at the curbs on the inside here.
00:40:32They're not particularly big.
00:40:34I mean, there's a little separation.
00:40:36Yeah, but you compare that to some of the curbs
00:40:38we see around the world.
00:40:40Not that high, but, boy, they unsettle the car.
00:40:42Well, the reason they unsettle the car is
00:40:44you want a very stiffly sprung car here.
00:40:46A for the aero, because you want to get the car
00:40:48to run as low down as possible,
00:40:50and also to give very quick change of direction
00:40:52through the chicanes.
00:40:54But you also need to give a little bit of compliancy
00:40:56to the car to make sure that the suspension
00:40:59will move and the chassis will roll
00:41:01as you try and mount the curbs.
00:41:03And, of course, then you have the contrast
00:41:05between the two again.
00:41:07It's very difficult to find the happy medium
00:41:10between the two.
00:41:12You tend to go towards a stiff setup.
00:41:14You know, David, do you ever run a...
00:41:16What would you do with a mechanical setup on the car?
00:41:18More stiff or more soft around here because of the curbs?
00:41:20Well, of course, you want it soft to go over the curb,
00:41:22but you... stiff to go over the curb.
00:41:24But on the other hand, you know,
00:41:26you want some good mechanical grip here
00:41:28because you haven't got much downforce.
00:41:30So you do want to get some quite good mechanical grip,
00:41:32but you certainly can't afford to have it too soft here.
00:41:34It's the first we've seen of the white stripe
00:41:36softer of the two.
00:41:38This is the medium Bridgestone compound
00:41:40on the road driven by Nelson Piquet.
00:41:42And the business of going over the curbs
00:41:44brings out another interesting aspect
00:41:46of the aero.
00:41:48It only really works properly
00:41:50when the car is down on the racetrack
00:41:52in the proper roll dimension,
00:41:54if you will.
00:41:56I mean, if you've got your wheels
00:41:58six, eight inches in the air,
00:42:00your aero's not going to work as well
00:42:02as when all four are right there
00:42:04and that bottom plane of the car
00:42:06is about two inches off the racetrack.
00:42:10Welcome back to Monza.
00:42:12Friday practice continues
00:42:14for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix
00:42:16on Speed.
00:42:18Twenty-six and a half minutes to go
00:42:20and Robert Kubica
00:42:22is on the button.
00:42:24Almost a half second up
00:42:26on his own session
00:42:28leading time.
00:42:30Well, Robert Kubica, the mechanics
00:42:32must have been listening to him.
00:42:34They must be working on his car.
00:42:36He's on the softer tires.
00:42:38He's on the softer tires.
00:42:40He's just looking for trouble.
00:42:42Let's see what he does.
00:42:4424.2, so
00:42:46Kubica the first guy so far
00:42:48to get into the 24s.
00:42:50At the Monza test last week,
00:42:52actually prior to the
00:42:54race at Spa,
00:42:561.22.621 was the time set by Heidfeld.
00:42:58So there's still a ways to go
00:43:00but we're getting there.
00:43:02And I tell you what, considering track conditions,
00:43:04we're getting there pretty fast.
00:43:06The very fastest first sector,
00:43:08so coming down to sector two, which ends just past the bridge.
00:43:12Half a second up in that sector.
00:43:14Wow.
00:43:16Which of course includes the
00:43:18De La Rosa chicane and the two Vesmos.
00:43:36Leaving in the throttle.
00:43:38It's an increasing radius corner.
00:43:40Wow.
00:43:42One second up. Now that is a huge
00:43:44jump.
00:43:48Long stretch of all-out throttle.
00:43:50Almost 80%
00:43:52of every lap at Monza
00:43:54is run at full throttle.
00:43:56Here comes Robert Kubica with that distinctive
00:43:58urban livery this weekend.
00:44:00Meant to commemorate his first
00:44:02Formula One podium, which took place here
00:44:04at Monza.
00:44:08He also raced here for
00:44:10many years in the junior formula,
00:44:12not being able to do so in his native Poland.
00:44:14Sunday on Wind Tunnel, Dave and his
00:44:16guests will pontificate on the current
00:44:18state of motorsports and the fits on the track
00:44:20in the corporate offices. Get your opinion
00:44:22heard. Pick up the phone or pound out an e-mail
00:44:24to Wind Tunnel with Dave Dispain live
00:44:26Sunday, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific
00:44:28only on
00:44:30Speed.
00:44:32So we expected BMW to do a fine
00:44:34job here, and at the moment, the Kubica, they're doing
00:44:36exactly that. They've just picked up another, well,
00:44:38Kubica's car, I should say, just picked up two
00:44:40miles an hour through the speed trap.
00:44:42Now down to 2.14.8.
00:44:44Adrian Sutil in the Force India
00:44:46Ferrari.
00:44:48That's a pretty wicked moment down in the Lesmos.
00:44:50Yeah, now we see Sutil making a lot
00:44:52of mistakes this year, but you've got to remember
00:44:54that the guy is having to drive a
00:44:56lot harder than anybody else to try and get the
00:44:58results out of the car.
00:45:00Nice, he collected that up pretty well.
00:45:02That was a second there, as well.
00:45:06Jenson Button,
00:45:08sitting in the Honda garage.
00:45:10Button just 18th
00:45:12in this session. One spot behind his
00:45:14teammate, Rubens Barrichello. They are both
00:45:16in the garage.
00:45:20Of course, this is Friday,
00:45:22so Robert Kubica and teammate
00:45:24Nick Heidfeld, who was only 10th on
00:45:26the timesheets, could be
00:45:28working in very different directions,
00:45:30so that pure lap time
00:45:32is not as important to Heidfeld.
00:45:34Wow.
00:45:36Wow.
00:45:38That was putting some
00:45:40hate in their ears, Todd. Yeah.
00:45:42Well, I'll never forget being at that track once
00:45:44in the morning warm-up
00:45:46when Derek Warren
00:45:48came out of the Parabolica
00:45:50upside down,
00:45:52just tearing a Lotus
00:45:54to smithereens.
00:45:56And
00:45:58leapt out.
00:46:00The Renault was backwards in the first
00:46:02chicane, so that's a local yellow.
00:46:04And leapt out
00:46:06of the car to go and get in the other car. Ran down
00:46:08the pit lane, rolled out the back up.
00:46:10Away he went,
00:46:12laughing all the way.
00:46:14Well, it wasn't that long ago here at Monza,
00:46:16where an accident was not a laughing matter.
00:46:18No.
00:46:20It's like he lost the fire in the Renault.
00:46:22They're going to
00:46:26winch him away.
00:46:28Just at the backdrop, behind the Armco,
00:46:30to the driver's right, you see
00:46:32where the first
00:46:34of the bank corners, or one of the
00:46:36bank corners, begins
00:46:38and joins the racetrack. You raced on the banking,
00:46:40didn't you, David? I did.
00:46:42Just once.
00:46:44The combined track, the banking and the track they're using
00:46:46now, because it was a bit different then.
00:46:48What's going on, Nelson?
00:46:50The car is stuck under a curb.
00:46:52Stop the
00:46:54engine, please, Nelson. You're too hot.
00:46:58There's the engineers watching
00:47:00the engine temps from the pit wall.
00:47:02Down to Peter Windsor.
00:47:04Well, Bob, let me just say
00:47:06that I was researching a story yesterday,
00:47:08just chatting to Nelson before we had the cameras
00:47:10rolling about the curbs at Monza, and he was
00:47:12saying, ah, the first chicane curbs, yeah, they're no big
00:47:14deal at all. It's only the second chicane
00:47:16curbs you need to worry about.
00:47:18I liked that question, too. I think it was from Pat Simmons
00:47:20saying, what's going on, Nelson?
00:47:22They could see as well as us what was going on, but it was
00:47:24an interesting point that they actually asked the question.
00:47:26In other words, what are you up to?
00:47:28Uh-huh. You saw he crept
00:47:30forward over one of the speed bumps
00:47:32and managed to high center the Renault
00:47:34on the sleeping
00:47:36policeman.
00:47:38There's a look
00:47:40at the order. Robert Kubica is substantially
00:47:42quicker than Kimi Raikkonen.
00:47:452008 marks
00:47:47the 20th anniversary of perhaps the most
00:47:49memorable finish in the long history of the
00:47:51Italian Grand Prix, a Ferrari
00:47:53one-two sweep at Monza.
00:47:55The two McLaren Hondas led the first half of the race
00:47:57with ease, but then Frenchman
00:47:59Alain Prost suffered fuel mixture
00:48:01problems and was forced to drop
00:48:03out of the race.
00:48:05His teammate Ayrton Senna passed for
00:48:07the lead, but with only two laps remaining,
00:48:09Senna collided with the
00:48:11lapped Williams of sports car race
00:48:13Jean-Louis Schlesser, who was standing
00:48:15in for the ill Nigel Mansell.
00:48:17That left Gerhard Berger
00:48:19in the lead for Ferrari, ahead of his
00:48:21teammate Michele Alboreto.
00:48:23And they came home one-two,
00:48:25the team's first win at Monza in
00:48:27nine years, and just less
00:48:29than a month after the passing of team
00:48:31founder, the legendary Enzo Ferrari.
00:48:33For McLaren, the Italian Grand Prix,
00:48:35the only race they did not
00:48:37win in the entire 1988
00:48:39season. Ayrton Senna
00:48:41emerging as champion for the first time.
00:48:43You know, that season, the 88
00:48:45season, really the closest
00:48:47we've ever come to the perfect
00:48:49season. As you say, Bob, 15 out
00:48:51of 16, just one
00:48:53race shy. It's never been done in
00:48:55Formula One, and that's the closest
00:48:57we've got. Ferrari got quite close in
00:48:592002. They took 15
00:49:01wins, but it was a 17 race season.
00:49:03And that action that Senna
00:49:05had running into Jean-Louis Schlesser there,
00:49:07coming into that first chicane, which is
00:49:09a different configuration to what it is today,
00:49:11was so unnecessary
00:49:13and so unsettled. He was leading
00:49:15by a mile. He was leading by
00:49:17miles, and he just ran right
00:49:19over Schlesser. I mean, it was just
00:49:21bizarre. It was just so
00:49:23unnecessary. That was Senna
00:49:25though, you know, just
00:49:27a little bit is good, a lot is
00:49:29better. Well, Jenson Button there,
00:49:3125.4, you know, eighth spot.
00:49:33Robert Kubica seems to be just
00:49:35out there on his own with 23.9.
00:49:39Well, boys, 88.
00:49:41I remember it well. I was at Williams. That was the
00:49:43year, of course, Frank had decided
00:49:45that he'd rather have Judd engines
00:49:47than Mansell and Nakajima with Honda
00:49:49engines. He probably had a better chance of the championship.
00:49:5188. Wow, what a year.
00:49:53Yeah. And Prost
00:49:55probably could have taken that win, but what?
00:49:57The Honda had one engine
00:49:59failure. One engine failure in
00:50:011988, and it had to be
00:50:03at Monza right here. So
00:50:05both Prost and Senna were
00:50:07at Monza. It's unbelievable.
00:50:09I asked Ron Dennis how he felt
00:50:11about that when I went down to
00:50:13Valencia to the car launch at McLaren
00:50:15a few years ago, and he
00:50:17came, he sort of became very
00:50:19misty-eyed very quickly.
00:50:21And I said, Ron, how did you feel about losing
00:50:23that? And he said,
00:50:25you know, is there any possibility of anybody
00:50:27doing it again? And he said, well, it would take a severe
00:50:29change in the regulations if anybody would
00:50:31be able to do it again. We need a big breakup
00:50:33in the regulations to give anybody an advantage
00:50:35Oh boy. Young fans may not
00:50:37recall, looking at the state of Honda right
00:50:39now, that they once dominated
00:50:41Formula One with their engines.
00:50:43Absolutely. Absolutely. As an
00:50:45engine supplier back in the 80s and the 90s,
00:50:47the early 90s,
00:50:49they were, without any question,
00:50:51the engine to have.
00:50:53This is also a big weekend for
00:50:55Williams. The 500th Grand Prix
00:50:57for Williams Grand Prix Engineering.
00:50:59Founded by Frank Williams
00:51:01and Patrick Head back in
00:51:031978.
00:51:05A lot of wins and championships
00:51:07along the way and the occasional bump in the road
00:51:09like the one Peter just described.
00:51:11Has Nakajima
00:51:13getting some air under the car there as he leapt over
00:51:15that chicane into the second
00:51:17Lesma.
00:51:19I have to tell you this one little story about McLaren
00:51:21because all sorts of memories coming back now from
00:51:23that 88 year
00:51:25when I had the great fortune to go down
00:51:27to McLaren a few years ago
00:51:29before they moved to the Paragon, the new
00:51:31technology center there to work with their
00:51:33old buildings and they have
00:51:35all their museum cars stored
00:51:37there under plastic sheeting. Not on display.
00:51:39They were just trying to literally store them
00:51:41out of the way and
00:51:43the McLaren engineers gave me permission just to
00:51:45pull the covers back and have a look at the cars
00:51:47under there and there was the
00:51:49first car that I uncovered was
00:51:51the MP44 from 1988.
00:51:53I had shivers going down
00:51:55my spine. Wow. This is
00:51:57the car boy. This is the cars that nearly
00:51:59did it. They nearly had the perfect
00:52:01season. It was a very, very
00:52:03cool day.
00:52:05We just
00:52:07were on board with David Coulthard a few
00:52:09seconds ago. Big party for David yesterday
00:52:11at the Red Bull Motorhome. This of course being the last
00:52:13motorhome event in David Coulthard's
00:52:15Formula One career and
00:52:17David, interesting, saying yesterday
00:52:19that Adrian Sutil passed him
00:52:21at Spa in an escape road
00:52:23and he got on the radio to his pit and said
00:52:25what's going to happen? I think Sutil should be penalized
00:52:27and we never did get the answer because
00:52:29Sutil then went off and we don't know what happened
00:52:31but at that moment he wasn't penalized
00:52:33and he didn't give the position back to DC.
00:52:37Well, it's interesting, you know, we recall the
00:52:391988 season when Frost and
00:52:41Senna were such incredible rivals
00:52:43and because they had equal equipment
00:52:45and Honda engines, they were at
00:52:47each other's throat in virtually every race
00:52:49and so the stewards had to
00:52:51exercise discretion.
00:52:53You know, sometimes it's the non-call
00:52:55that is most appropriate in a given
00:52:57situation. Of course, we all know it came
00:52:59to a sad end in 1989 when they collided
00:53:01in the chicane at Suzuka Japan
00:53:03and the officials did step in
00:53:05there and slapped Senna
00:53:07down for re-entering the track, having
00:53:09straight-lined the chicane, ignoring the fact that
00:53:11he'd been sitting there for about two minutes
00:53:13so he could hardly have gained any sort of
00:53:15competitive advantage. Nevertheless, that was
00:53:17what they ruled
00:53:19and that led to a huge outburst that almost cost
00:53:21Senna his career. He lashed
00:53:23out publicly against the stewards
00:53:25of the FIA
00:53:27and then-president of the FIA
00:53:29Jean-Marie Ballest threatened to revoke
00:53:31his license, not let him drive in Formula 1
00:53:33the next year.
00:53:35Well, he was such an incredibly, incredibly
00:53:37passionate driver.
00:53:39I mean, I never had the good fortune
00:53:41to work with him during my career as a
00:53:43mechanic, but talking to the McLaren guys
00:53:45that did and talking to Nigel Stenton
00:53:47who worked with him at Lotus,
00:53:49I mean, they were just so dedicated
00:53:51to Senna and Senna was so committed
00:53:53to the team he was racing
00:53:55with at the time and of course working towards the
00:53:57win, that he really
00:53:59without any question in my time, was
00:54:01the opposition.
00:54:03And very conservative
00:54:05hand-carry, but it's
00:54:07extremely
00:54:09catchy over there. If you make
00:54:11one centimetre
00:54:13to the left or to the right, you're going for a
00:54:15right, so it's really difficult.
00:54:17Yeah, that gives you some
00:54:19idea how precise you need to be around Monza.
00:54:21One centimetre, what's that?
00:54:23Three-eighth of an inch?
00:54:25Not much.
00:54:27200 miles an hour?
00:54:29Exactly, that's the point.
00:54:31Threading the needle at 200 miles an hour.
00:54:33Yikes.
00:54:35Hey, Formula 1 fans, if you've got a question or
00:54:37comment for us, log on to speedtv.com,
00:54:39go to the F1 section, click on the
00:54:41round tables link, send us your
00:54:43question. We'll try to answer as many of them as
00:54:45possible during our round table discussion,
00:54:47following practice that should be posted
00:54:49later on today.
00:54:53Twelve minutes to go. Adrian
00:54:55Sutil up into the top ten.
00:54:57He's doing very well, isn't he?
00:54:59Yes, he is. Ferrari engines once again.
00:55:01The order is Kubica,
00:55:03just by a tick
00:55:05over his teammate.
00:55:07Nick Heidfeld up to second, just
00:55:0916 thousandths of a second
00:55:11behind Robert Kubica.
00:55:13This BMW Sauber looks to be on their game
00:55:15here at Monza.
00:55:17Then comes Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg,
00:55:19Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel,
00:55:21Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Sutil,
00:55:23as we just mentioned, David Coulthard,
00:55:25now ninth, and Jenson Button,
00:55:27tenth in the Honda.
00:55:31The McLarens,
00:55:33strangely off the pace. Hamilton down there
00:55:35in seventh, and Kovalainen in
00:55:37fourteenth. And they've both done quite a few laps,
00:55:39so I imagine they're looking for
00:55:41I imagine they're looking for a setup change
00:55:43somewhere. Garneau truly,
00:55:45whatever program he is working
00:55:47on here in Friday practice,
00:55:49is still shown slower than Nelson Piquet,
00:55:51who's been stopped for quite a while now.
00:55:53Still twentieth
00:55:55in the Toyota.
00:55:57And Glock is eighteenth, so the
00:55:59Toyotas, again,
00:56:01spar a couple of weeks ago.
00:56:03You know, we're looking pretty sad.
00:56:05Well, the noted aerodynamicist
00:56:11continues on his way. We pick up
00:56:13Heikki Kovalainen.
00:56:15He too has work to do
00:56:17down in fourteenth in the McLaren
00:56:19Mercedes. We'll be back.
00:56:29Back at Monza, less than seven
00:56:31and a half minutes to go. We may see some
00:56:33teams playing with their qualifying
00:56:35setups. Watching Mark Webber
00:56:37in the Red Bull Renault,
00:56:39currently thirteenth on the timesheets.
00:56:45Pretty big difference in
00:56:47laps turned thus far. Fernando
00:56:49Alonso with sixteen
00:56:51laps, while
00:56:53Nico Rosberg, I'll make that
00:56:55Mark Webber, has thirty-one
00:56:57laps in the books in this session.
00:57:00There's more on Mark. Here's Peter
00:57:02Windsor. Well, only
00:57:04just remembering back to the grid at Spa
00:57:06when Mark was saying, I asked him what Eau Rouge
00:57:08was going to be like on the opening lap, and he said
00:57:10certainly not flat. It's just suddenly going to be a corner
00:57:12again, and I think that was proved to be absolutely
00:57:14true by what happened there. We saw
00:57:16the cream coming to the surface, Lewis Hamilton
00:57:18and Kimi Räikkönen, just fabulous
00:57:20through Eau Rouge on that opening lap. And I don't
00:57:22know what you guys thought about that shot that
00:57:24Kimi gave Felipe Massa as he went
00:57:26past him, but to me that said a thousand
00:57:28times. That said, Felipe,
00:57:30you can be quick on all those boring corners and
00:57:32all those boring circuits. This is a real corner
00:57:34now. I'll show you how to drive. That's
00:57:36to me, that's what was going on there. I think that was
00:57:38the body language from Kimi. Well,
00:57:40there's no question he's, you know, Kimi
00:57:42suddenly came alive at Monza
00:57:44at Spa, you mean?
00:57:46Excuse me, at Spa, yeah. I mean, for most of the
00:57:48season, we've wondered where Kimi Räikkönen had disappeared
00:57:50to. But Kimi, we know him well, but he came
00:57:52back to life for us at Spa.
00:57:54Boy, I mean, those closing couple of laps
00:57:56when you saw those two duke and his hat, Hamilton
00:57:58and Räikkönen, was just awesome.
00:58:00It was. It was incredible racing
00:58:02and it's what people pay for. It's what the world
00:58:04TV called. I've got it.
00:58:06He has got it. I'll tell you what.
00:58:10Hands off the steering wheel.
00:58:14Going through the first Lesmo, he got
00:58:16a bit out of shape. Wow.
00:58:18That was pretty hair-raising, that.
00:58:20That was pretty hair-raising, that.
00:58:30But you're right. I mean, those laps
00:58:32at Spa, I mean, that was
00:58:34Mansell, Piquet,
00:58:36Senefros. Yeah, and to take it
00:58:38all away just seems to me to be so
00:58:40pointless.
00:58:42Well, I suppose the irony of the situation is
00:58:44with Kimi crashing out
00:58:46and Hamilton being penalized,
00:58:48there are two guys who really,
00:58:50either one of them, deserve to win that race.
00:58:52Neither one of them wound up winning.
00:59:02OK, here's the first Lesmo.
00:59:04Oh, that's the second Lesmo.
00:59:10Our colleague Tommy Kendall likes to say,
00:59:12all racing drivers, no matter the nationality,
00:59:14are Italian when it comes right down to it
00:59:16to talk with their hands. I think you saw a little bit
00:59:18of it right there.
00:59:20What is going on?
00:59:26Still only three runners
00:59:28breaking into the 23 so far.
00:59:30Raikkonen, Kubitsch and Heidfeld,
00:59:32everybody else down the order from there
00:59:34is still in the 24s and higher.
00:59:36That was Luca Badua, one of the
00:59:38Ferrari test drivers.
00:59:46Hamilton jumps up to fourth,
00:59:48but he's still two tenths off.
00:59:52See the old bats locking up there, Steve,
00:59:54but no win.
00:59:56Yes, exactly, David, that's a good point
00:59:58you bring up again. It's that lack of downforce
01:00:00on the car.
01:00:02I don't think these guys are in trouble,
01:00:04though. I mean, you know, the car
01:00:06should suit the track. It rides
01:00:08very well. It's got a lot of power.
01:00:10It's got a lot of power.
01:00:12It's got a lot of power.
01:00:14Should suit the track. It rides
01:00:16the curves well. It's gone very, very
01:00:18well at Monza. I mean, last year's iteration
01:00:20of the car worked very well at Monza.
01:00:22I'm sure these guys are working on fuel
01:00:24strategy and fuel loads. Of course, it is Friday
01:00:26as we always say.
01:00:28I expect these guys...
01:00:30I expect it to be another battle royale
01:00:32for qualifying, quite frankly, between McLaren
01:00:34and Ferrari or more.
01:00:38Steve, we know how important braking
01:00:40from high speed is here at Monza.
01:00:42What was your take on that spin of Lewis
01:00:44at the beginning of his first flying lap at Spa?
01:00:46Just as he selected first, as he said
01:00:48afterwards, lock the rear brakes. He called it a pathetic
01:00:50spin, so at least he's
01:00:52honest. But it was an amazing thing, really.
01:00:54And he still rejoined in the lead at the end of
01:00:56lap one. It was amazing. Yeah, I wonder whether or not it was just
01:00:58lack of temperature in the material, Peter, that
01:01:00caught him off guard there. We know that
01:01:02these brakes have to be kept
01:01:04at a certain temperature. And again,
01:01:06this is another facet of
01:01:08Monza, is you don't use the brakes all
01:01:10the while, of course. You can see the cars running down these
01:01:12long, long straights. But when you do
01:01:14need them, this is a replay back.
01:01:16But it was very wet on the opening lap here.
01:01:18I mean, look at those tyres.
01:01:20River going across the track, and
01:01:22Raikkonen having to go around him.
01:01:24Carbon brakes work terrifically well,
01:01:26but you have to have the temperature
01:01:28controlled. They have to have a core temperature
01:01:30of like four, 450 degrees
01:01:32C. So we'll double it to
01:01:3430, nearly 1,000 degrees, not far off.
01:01:36Oh, and Peter, this just in from our
01:01:38research department, the Women's
01:01:40Long Jump Gold Medalist
01:01:42and Antonio Pizzogna's former wife
01:01:44is Morin Maggi,
01:01:46M-A-G-G-I.
01:01:48So you can make a note.
01:01:52Well, this just in as well, as the track
01:01:54has dried out, the speed trap
01:01:56is getting to be an exciting place.
01:01:58Quickest through the speed trap right now,
01:02:00Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes,
01:02:02215 miles an hour.
01:02:04That's getting under the program.
01:02:06The speed trap at Monza is before the first chicane.
01:02:08It's about three quarters of the way
01:02:10down the front
01:02:12straightaway, just before the
01:02:14braking zone for the first chicane.
01:02:16Well, Nico Rosberg said he thought
01:02:18that their car would be more suited to this track
01:02:20than it has been at a lot of the tracks so far this year,
01:02:22and he certainly looks like he's right.
01:02:24He's in fifth spot.
01:02:30So only three tenths off, so
01:02:32Rosberg looking pretty racy.
01:02:36Coming up on the final minute of Friday
01:02:38practice, everybody is
01:02:40on track.
01:02:42Including Nelson
01:02:44Piquet.
01:02:46Oh, he's shown it. No, that's not correct.
01:02:48He's shown as being on track.
01:02:50The car is there without its driver.
01:02:54Tripped over the timing
01:02:56and scoring nomenclature. It says stop
01:02:58when the car is not in the pit.
01:03:00Not the game of that.
01:03:02Running foul of the
01:03:04Honda there. He needs to
01:03:06pull up the pace a bit.
01:03:08His teammate, Rosberg, is fifth.
01:03:12Hankie Kovalainen coming out of
01:03:14Parabolica.
01:03:16Some lights just flick on on the safety vehicles
01:03:18along this front straightaway.
01:03:20Yeah, they're going to do a test bomb at the end of this
01:03:22for the safety car rules.
01:03:24Because the drivers are unhappy about the
01:03:26closing of the pit lane
01:03:28during the first stage of a safety car.
01:03:30Oh, we're going to test that new system again.
01:03:32Yeah, they're going to do a little test session
01:03:34towards the end.
01:03:36There's Hamilton
01:03:38ahead of the pace again.
01:03:40We're not likely to see a 22
01:03:42but a low 23.
01:03:46Now he's getting a good tow there
01:03:48from the red bull car.
01:03:54Hamilton currently fourth.
01:03:56Raikkonen with the quick lap
01:03:58of the session thus far.
01:04:02Doesn't look like he's going to get there.
01:04:0624.1.
01:04:08Checkered flag is out.
01:04:10Session is over.
01:04:14Here comes Hankie Kovalainen.
01:04:16He's ahead of the pace and this lap will count
01:04:18for what it's worth on Friday practice.
01:04:24Wow, he slaps around here.
01:04:28Look at the scenery going by.
01:04:32You watch the onboard cameras
01:04:34from Spa on YouTube or wherever you can find them
01:04:36and you get that same impression there.
01:04:38You are going somewhere in our Earth.
01:04:42Will it be a finish one-two? No!
01:04:44Kovalainen loses a lot of time in the final sector.
01:04:46Well, they both lost a lot of time in that final sector.
01:04:48And the final sector really is only the
01:04:50Ascari chicane
01:04:52and the straight and the run down to
01:04:54Parabolica and Parabolica.
01:04:56So, interesting there.
01:04:58They'll all be dissecting and looking at all that data.
01:05:02Kovalainen's last lap just 21 thousandths
01:05:04of a second off of his quick lap
01:05:06which is the quickest of the session
01:05:08at a 1.23.861.
01:05:10So, Raikkonen on a charge
01:05:12once again on the type of track
01:05:14that suits him to a T.
01:05:16Very, very fast.
01:05:18Calling for a great car
01:05:20and an awful lot of courage.
01:05:22We'll take a break and return with more
01:05:24as Friday practice is now complete
01:05:26from the former Royal Park in Monza.
01:05:32Speed, Italian Grand Prix.
01:05:34It's an amazing atmosphere here.
01:05:36A sea of red swelling with pride
01:05:38and Team Ferrari
01:05:40fueling the passion.
01:05:42Turn up the volume.
01:05:44This is Monza.
01:05:46For an epic battle at the fastest track
01:05:48on the circuit.
01:05:50Massa, desperate, desperate to get past McLaren.
01:05:52Massa, pushing hard. Look at him go.
01:05:54Live coverage continues tomorrow
01:05:56with Formula 1 qualifying,
01:05:588 Eastern, 5 Pacific.
01:06:00Welcome back to Monza.
01:06:02There's a good look down on the
01:06:04supposedly temporary facility
01:06:06in this environmentally
01:06:08sensitive area.
01:06:10Final results of Friday's second practice.
01:06:12Well, Ferrari where they want to be.
01:06:14Right at the top of the sheets there on Friday
01:06:16to drag the people in for tomorrow on Sunday.
01:06:18Kubica and Heidfeld doing a grand job
01:06:20for BMW. Lewis Hamilton
01:06:22just over a tenth off there.
01:06:24Nico Rosberg looking good.
01:06:26Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.
01:06:28And Kovalainen and Mark Webber rounding out
01:06:30the top eight.
01:06:32And the rest of the runners getting
01:06:34used to Monza as it starts to
01:06:36dry out. Sutil down there
01:06:38in 19th. Barrichello down there in
01:06:4014th for Honda. All of these fellas
01:06:42well shy of the 23 that are in the 24's
01:06:44and 25's second roll.
01:06:46And right down the bottom there Nelson Piquet.
01:06:48We saw Beach down on the first chicane
01:06:50in P20.
01:06:52Just two points separate the
01:06:54top two in the World Championship as we stand
01:06:56and the plot will thicken all weekend.
01:06:58Join us again tonight at midnight as we
01:07:00look back and analyze the Belgian Grand Prix
01:07:02controversy on Formula 1 debrief.
01:07:04Then Saturday we'll have live
01:07:06coverage of knockout qualifying for the
01:07:08Italian Grand Prix at 8 a.m. Eastern time.
01:07:10Sunday the action begins bright and early.
01:07:12The final round of the GP2
01:07:14Championship from Monza at 6 a.m.
01:07:16Eastern. Immediately following
01:07:18GP2, live coverage of the
01:07:20Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix
01:07:22wrapping up the European season.
01:07:24We'll start things off at 7.30 a.m.
01:07:26with the Acura pre-race show.
01:07:28At 8 o'clock the cars will roll off.
01:07:30For David Hobbs, Steve Batchel and Peter Windsor
01:07:32I'm Bob Marcia. We'll see you tonight
01:07:34on debrief and tomorrow for
01:07:36qualifying. So long everyone.
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