Coluna de Nico: Mais difícil do que esperava

Eis a coluna sobre o fatídico GP francês de Nico. Hoje ele está ele Silverstone testando. Pela manhã marcou o 4º tempo, como vocês podem ver no post a baixo. Espero que esse teste seja bastante produtivo porque, a situação está feia. Voltando à coluna, no primeiro parágrafo ele já define bem o sentimento do final de semana: “Como resultado da punição de 10 posições ganha em Montreal, eu espera que o GP da França seria difícil. Mas, não tão difícil!”, desabafa. A partir daí explica como o carro estava complicado durante o final de semana inteiro e pode-se sentir toda frustração pelas linhas e paragrafos seguintes do texto. Para não terminar de mau humor, o ultimo parágrafo é dedicado a Eurocopa, em especial, claro, a seleção Alemã que joga a semi-final com a Turquia na quarta-feira. Nico conta todo empolgado que vai assistir em seu motorhome lá em Silverstone e que se a Alemanha ganhar irá para final no domingo.

Ele gosta memso de futebol! Nem comentei aqui mas, li no iWitness de quinta-feira passada que ele cancelou o churrasco que daria em seu mortorhome para assistir em paz ao jogo Alemanha e Portugal. rsrsrsrs

Nico's French GP Column

As a result of the 10-place penalty from Montreal, I expected the French Grand Prix to be a tough race. But not this tough!

The FW30 lacked the pace of our main competitors in the battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. That’s not to say we didn’t make progress with the set-up during practice because we improved from 14th fastest on Friday morning to 11th on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning we were fourth quickest. But when it really mattered, in qualifying and the race, the Red Bulls and the Renaults were quicker.

My pace over one lap in qualifying was compromised by the rear wing we wanted to use in the race, but it should have cost only a tenth of a second and to qualify 15th was very disappointing. After battling with the BMWs and the Ferraris in Canada, it was a bit of a reality check and proof that our car isn’t strong on these quick, medium downforce tracks.

With my 10-place penalty, I started the race on the back row of the grid. I wasn’t last, however; the wooden spoon went to Rubens Barrichello, who had a gearbox change on race morning and the resultant five-place penalty saw him line up 20th.

At the start of the race, I got too much wheelspin and I wasn’t able to make up any places on the run to the first corner. Knowing that I was on a one-stop strategy, I spent the early laps nursing my option tyres while my fuel load was at its heaviest. I was then the last driver to pit for new rubber, on lap 40, which was when I switched to the prime tyre and could push a bit harder from the outset. I crossed the finish line in 16th place, which was my worst result of the year.

At least I won’t have a grid penalty at the British Grand Prix, the next race on the calendar, so I’m looking forward to having a better race there. We have a test session at the track this

week, when we hope to make progress with the set-up of the car and resolve some of the issues we had in France. Although Silverstone has a lot of high-speed corners at the start of the lap, the twisty end to it means we use slightly more downforce than at Magny-Cours, which I hope will improve our overall competitiveness.

There’s also a very important football match on Wednesday, which I’ll be watching in my motorhome in the Silverstone paddock. Germany are playing Turkey in the semi finals of Euro 2008, which I’m told is the 18th time they’ve made it into the semis of a major tournament. That’s a very impressive record, but one that they fully deserve because they know how to perform when it really matters. If they win, you can guess what I’ll be doing next Sunday, which is finals day!

See you at Silverstone, Nico

By Lu