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The 2nd Friday Practice Session for Round 15 of the 2004 F1 season at Monza.
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00:23Back in 1922, a racetrack was built in just seven weeks into a former hunting preserve
00:28for Italian royalty in the Milan suburb of Monza.
00:32Today it stands as a living, breathing reminder of what a racetrack can and should be.
00:37Welcome to Monza for opening practice for the 74th running of the Italian Grand Prix.
00:43Hello, everyone. I'm Bob Varsha.
00:45Final round of the European season, or the European portion of the Formula One season here on Speed Channel.
00:52The cars are on track for the start of the second session.
00:54David Hobbs and Steve Matchett are alongside.
00:56Let's get right to the highlights of this morning's first 60-minute practice session in the Royal Park.
01:03Always a thrill when the cars pull into the pit lane, but especially so here at Monza.
01:07With their Michelin after their desperate problems two weeks ago in Belgium. We'll see.
01:13Well, Anthony Davidson was on Michelin's in the BAR Honda.
01:16You can see his outline there going through the Lesmo curves here.
01:20Had a little bit of an off onto the old gravel.
01:22The car looked pretty good under those conditions.
01:25But nevertheless, Davidson wasn't to be daunted and set the fastest lap of the time, fastest lap of the session
01:31at that point.
01:34And then, with 31 minutes left of the session, Michael Schumacher deems it necessary to come into the Ferrari garage.
01:40Gets into the F2004 and instantly goes quickest of the sessions so far, taking .640 off the time of the
01:48day.
01:48But look at this.
01:49Just as with Davidson in the second Lesmo, just taking a little bit too much curb and get it into
01:54the gravel.
01:55Finding the limit by exceeding it, as it were.
01:58And then there was Kimi Raikkonen, who triumphed in such spectacular fashion over the Ferraris two weeks ago in Belgium.
02:03Quickest in the first sector, but he couldn't hold it up for the entire lap.
02:07And shortly afterward, he went down to check out to make sure the safety road down in turn one was
02:12in good shape.
02:12And it was.
02:14That brings us to this second 60-minute session with the Friday or third drivers on track for the six
02:20teams that did not finish in the top four of the championship last year.
02:24As you look at the times from the morning practice or the first practice, during that session, Rubens Barichello did
02:30just four laps in his Ferrari.
02:32But he managed to set second quickest time behind his teammate, Michael Schumacher, and the fastest time in the speed
02:38trap at 224.181 miles an hour.
02:42That's in the area just before the braking zone for turn one.
02:46And believe it or not, and I'm not sure I do, that time was matched by the Minardi of Friday
02:53driver Bas Lienders of Belgium.
02:56224.1 from the Minardi, for whom this is the home race.
03:01Their shops are in the little town of Fienze, just up the road.
03:05There's the reason why they're so fast down into turn one.
03:07The Parabolica is the corner leading onto it, which in itself is a very, very high speed,
03:11although it goes to 180 degrees, it's an incredibly high speed corner.
03:15So it launches them onto that front straight at enormous speed.
03:19There's our old friend Alex Zanardi, visiting his former Formula One colleagues.
03:24Alex now a touring car driver, had a rather large accident last week.
03:30Oh, and already one of the Jordans has expired.
03:33Is that Nick Heidfeld?
03:34There comes Timo Glock in one of the other Jordans.
03:38Oh dear.
03:39That's not the way to start this weekend, is it?
03:42Oh my.
03:42This is a very fast track, and you can see the very small rear wings these cars have got on.
03:48Let's just have a look at this Ford engine.
03:50Letting go, go for the Curva Grande there, coming down to the De La Roja chicane.
03:55So Jordan, guys, hearing the message from Nick Heidfeld, who of course won't be able to do any more practice
04:00today.
04:01That was probably on his first lap, just rolling out.
04:04Yeah, not a good sign.
04:06There's Timo Glock bounding over the curbs, which you must do here at Monza to get a good time.
04:14Wow, what a disappointment.
04:16This track is brutal on the engines, it must be said, as Rubens Botticello mounts up.
04:21That's Luca Badua, their test driver on the right.
04:26Of all the tracks in Formula One, the drivers spend the most time with their right foot buried at this
04:31racetrack.
04:32More than two-thirds of each lap, about 70%, the engineers say, is at the very top of the rev
04:38range.
04:39And that means each cylinder gets about five milliseconds of burn time before the exhaust valve opens.
04:46It still is a miracle to me how the whole thing works.
04:50Unbelievable.
04:51It isn't possible for it to work, is it?
04:55And as you'd expect on a track that's very hard on engines, not too many of the Varsity are on
05:01track right now.
05:03There's Rubens just buckling in after just four laps this morning.
05:06He's got plenty of laps still on that Ferrari V10.
05:10And we'll take a quick break and return as one of the Williams cars.
05:14Stay with us.
05:17Speed Channel's coverage of the FIA Formula One World Championship is brought to you by BMW.
05:23BMW, the ultimate driving machine.
05:28The Italian Grand Prix track map is brought to you by Porsche.
05:31Porsche, there is no substitute.
05:36Welcome back live to Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
05:40Bob Barsha, Steve Machen, and David Hobbs with you.
05:42A moment ago, we saw Juan Pablo Montoya going on track just before we went to break.
05:46He came around with the third quickest time of the session just a moment ago,
05:50bumped to fourth by his BMW Williams teammate, Antonio Pisonia.
05:55There's Anthony Davidson with that unique paint job on the BAR with the driver's body profile painted on the side
06:02pod.
06:02Mark Webber heads for the pit lane in the Jaguar.
06:05Anthony Davidson already fastest in this session, but held up badly on that lap by Mark Webber.
06:10As he completes his latest hot lap, let's take a quick look at our Porsche track map.
06:15Take us around, David.
06:17He said, Bob, one of the most historic tracks in the world.
06:203.6 miles long.
06:21It's pretty long as well.
06:23Very, very fast.
06:24They keep on trying to slow it down.
06:26They put in the Rettifilio Tribune there.
06:28They put in the Variante della Rosa.
06:30They put in the Curva del Ville only, and they put in the Chicane there at T2,
06:35which was all to try to slow it down.
06:37It used to be a big, fast swerve.
06:38It's still average around about 160 miles an hour.
06:41Years possible into Turn 1, into the Parabolica, and even down to the Lesmo,
06:45if you're very brave, a la Juan Pablo Montoya.
06:49The Lesmos, proper curves.
06:52The old Curva Villasano, which used to be the Curva Grandi,
06:55is now just a big, flat-out blind at that Della Rosa.
06:59We'll also see some overtaking.
07:01As you might expect, drafting is everything here at Monza.
07:04Back in 1971, Peter Gethin popped out from behind Ronnie Peterson
07:09to cross the line just 1 100th of a second ahead of Peterson,
07:13averaging 150.754 miles an hour from start to finish.
07:19But none of these chicanes were there then.
07:21It was straight from the start-finish, round the Curva Grandi,
07:25through the Lesmos, back up to the Iscari Curve, and through the Parabolica.
07:29And that's how you could really slipstream then.
07:31Well, as I mentioned, you need to use the curbs around this racetrack.
07:36Moments ago, let's check out what happened to Felipe Massa in his Sauber.
07:41There it is.
07:42Now watch as he approaches the...
07:44Oh, that'll do it.
07:45Sauber run this two-twin bargeboard system,
07:48one painted blue and one yellow.
07:50You see the yellow one on the flank of the chassis still in place.
07:53But you pinch too much curb around, Monza,
07:56and you will pay the penalty for it.
07:57But have a look at the aerodynamic settings on these cars.
08:01The rear wings are almost non-existent.
08:03I mean, in previous years, we've seen them run smaller and smaller elements
08:06on the rear of these cars.
08:07Nowadays, and certainly the McLaren were looking at Kimi Raikkonen's earlier on,
08:12it's pointless to have a wing on the car.
08:14Quite frankly, very low downforce.
08:17The wings and the aerodynamic specifications of the car for Monza
08:21are made specifically for this event.
08:23These wings will not get used at any other track on the Formula One calendar.
08:27Of course, with the diffuser underneath these cars, through the floor,
08:30they've still got tremendous downforce,
08:32but a lot less drag by taking those big wings off.
08:35Yes, absolutely.
08:37You lose drag by reducing the wing size,
08:40but the underside of the car, as you say, David,
08:43about 30% of the downforce generated by the diffuser,
08:46but with very minimal drag.
08:47So they don't want to start playing around with the diffuser.
08:50Look at the Ferrari rear wing as well.
08:52They're all running this same very flat profile.
08:56The only car I've seen that's been running significant more wing
08:59than, say, the McLaren and the Ferrari so far
09:01has been the Toyota, that marvellous, according to Gascoigne,
09:05marvellous chassis, the TF-104B, the reworked car.
09:09But it's clear that the handling of that chassis
09:11is nowhere near as good as the Ferrari and McLaren.
09:13I don't believe so, because they wouldn't have
09:15that amount of wing on.
09:19This is Batakello.
09:23The cars of all the teams, I should say,
09:25all 10 teams have had a long pre-Monza test at Monza.
09:29Four or five days have been banging out
09:31a huge amount of laps, Bob.
09:33We were saying earlier on, something like,
09:34Ferrari team have been something like 95 laps a day
09:38on average throughout the Monza test.
09:40I thought the Williams team did about 470 laps
09:44over the three days.
09:46That multiplied by 3.6 is a lot of miles.
09:49Well, the race is only 53 laps.
09:52You see the curb hopping on Barrichello's car.
09:55This great super slow-mo they use.
09:57Have a look at the front wing, guys, on this car.
09:59A couple of races ago, Bob, you were quite right
10:01in pointing out that Ferrari had announced
10:03they had stopped development on the F2004 chassis.
10:06They wouldn't do any more development until 2005.
10:08Well, following the result of the last race
10:11by this man right here, Kimi Räikkönen,
10:13the mood apparently in the Ferrari garage
10:16did not go down at all.
10:17Well, and the stops are pulled out
10:19and back in the wind tunnel the car went.
10:21Rory Byrne, the chief aerodynamic assistant
10:23and designer at Ferrari,
10:24has developed brand new low downforce wings
10:26just for this race
10:27because Ferrari want to win the Monza race.
10:31Coming down to the Parabolica.
10:38As Crocodile Dundee would say,
10:40this is a corner.
10:52As Crocodile Dundee might have said,
10:54that bug doesn't have the guts to try that again.
10:57Yeah, I think what really upset Ferrari,
11:01and we were talking about it during the race broadcast,
11:03Ferrari were basically just outpaced
11:05by McLaren in that race.
11:06Michelin had by far the superior tyres on the day
11:09because of the safety car period.
11:11Michelin's worked a lot better
11:12when they were cold and cooler
11:13in that session running behind the safety car,
11:16and there are those Michelin's right there.
11:17And the Ferrari tyres,
11:19the Bridgestones cooled down an awful lot
11:20and simply didn't have the pace,
11:22didn't have the temperature build-up
11:23after the safety car period
11:25to respond to McLaren's pace.
11:28Notice the new broader nose
11:29on the McLaren for this race.
11:31No question about it,
11:32they beat Ferrari toe-to-toe
11:34in a straight fight in Belgium.
11:36And Michael Schumacher
11:38never looked more despondent
11:40standing on a Formula 1 podium,
11:41I don't think.
11:42Well, because he realised,
11:43didn't he, big time.
11:44But don't forget, of course,
11:45Kimi Räikköen came from 10th
11:47to win that race,
11:48and by the end of lap 12,
11:49he was leading.
11:49Mm-hmm, yeah.
11:51I mean, he had to fight his way through,
11:53well, he had to fight his way
11:54through a lot of debris,
11:54of course, at the end of first lap,
11:56but nevertheless,
11:57it was a terrific performance
11:58by McLaren and Kimi Räikköen.
11:59There's been a lot of talk
12:00about that debris
12:01from that first corner accident
12:03that left shards of carbon fibre
12:04on the road.
12:05They have contributed to Michelin's
12:07three tyre failures in that race.
12:15In the past week,
12:17there's been a lot of discussion
12:19about how Formula 1
12:20needs to take a step up
12:22in its track cleaning procedures
12:23after one of these big accidents
12:25that leaves those shards
12:26on the road.
12:27Michelin, for their part,
12:28say they haven't come
12:29to a definitive conclusion
12:30as to why those tyres failed.
12:32There were two more failures
12:33in a test here at Monza
12:34that Steve Matchett spoke of earlier,
12:36but those were set to
12:39the lack of the valve caps
12:42on the stems,
12:43which is a team problem,
12:44according to Michelin.
12:45Yeah, having the valve cap,
12:47the secondary valve cap,
12:48screwed on to the pressure valve
12:50where you inflate the tyres
12:51in all racing cars,
12:53but certainly in Formula 1,
12:53is absolutely essential,
12:55unlike in a road car application
12:57where that little screw-on valve cap
12:58is really just to keep the grit
12:59away from the pressure valve inside.
13:01Because of the tremendous vibrations
13:04and undulations
13:04around the Formula 1 track,
13:06and the tyre,
13:07that little inflation valve,
13:09the little spring-loaded valve
13:10inside the tyre
13:11will start to vibrate
13:13and oscillate,
13:13and if you haven't got
13:14that secondary cap
13:15screwed down
13:16and locked into place,
13:17you'll lose pressure.
13:18It's absolutely essential
13:20that those caps are on the car
13:22before the car takes to the track,
13:24and I'm afraid to say
13:25whoever is responsible for that
13:26should not be working
13:28in a Formula 1 environment.
13:30Be sure to be with us on Sunday.
13:31Peter Windsor will have more
13:32on the Michelin situation
13:33and their reaction
13:34to the Belgian race,
13:35including comments
13:36from their motorsport director,
13:37Pierre Dupasquier.
13:45It was at just about that speed
13:47and almost at that spot
13:48on the racetrack last week
13:50that Michael Schumacher
13:51had a savage accident
13:53when one of his Bridgestone tires
13:55failed at the rear.
13:57He went hard into the wall,
13:59climbed out,
13:59lay on the ground,
14:00afterwards said,
14:01I feel fine.
14:04Welcome back live
14:05to the Autor del Romo
14:06Nazionale di Manza
14:08in the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
14:10Anthony Davidson
14:11leads the session
14:12with a lap
14:13at 1 minute
14:13at 21.745 seconds.
14:16This is Ryan Briscoe,
14:18young Australian,
14:19third driver for Toyota
14:21who had that heavy accident
14:22at Eau Rouge in Belgium
14:24two weeks ago.
14:26And he had a tire let go
14:27on the approach to Eau Rouge,
14:28but this lap
14:29is looking pretty strong
14:30at the moment.
14:31Ryan Briscoe could easily
14:32put himself
14:34right up with Kimi Räikkönen,
14:36who's lying second
14:37at the moment today,
14:38which is on the time charts.
14:41Long back straightaway,
14:43the scene of one
14:43of the great tragedies,
14:44and there have been
14:45a few here at Manza
14:46over the years.
14:46It was there
14:47that Jochen Rint
14:49was killed
14:50in his Lotus
14:51en route
14:52to the 1970
14:53World Championship,
14:54which he won
14:56posthumously.
14:56No one could top
14:57his points total
14:58despite the fact
15:00that he missed
15:00the final races
15:01of the season.
15:01The only posthumous
15:02Formula One
15:03World Champion
15:03in history.
15:05Yeah, he's braking
15:06for the Parabolica
15:07and the front,
15:09it was a Lotus
15:10with inboard front brakes
15:12and something broke.
15:13The driveshaft
15:14out to the wheel
15:15or the brake
15:16itself came apart,
15:17pitched him
15:17into the guardrail,
15:18which wasn't up
15:19to specification
15:20these days.
15:21The car went
15:22under the bottom rail
15:24and unfortunately
15:25poor old Jochen Rint
15:27was killed
15:27right there and then.
15:30Horrendous.
15:35Michael Schumacher,
15:36if you get a look
15:36at his helmet,
15:37note the paint scheme
15:38on the sides.
15:39He has the Italian
15:40rather than the German
15:41flags on his helmet
15:42in honor of Ferrari's
15:43twin championships
15:44for drivers
15:45and constructors.
15:50Mark Webber
15:51in the deck.
15:52Really mighty.
15:53Got a bit wide
15:53on the second
15:54lead spot.
16:01Under the old
16:02oval track.
16:06in many years
16:07since they used it
16:08but back in 1957
16:09and 58
16:10it was the site
16:11of the race
16:11of two worlds.
16:13Two years
16:14in which the stars
16:15of USAC
16:16came across
16:17with their
16:18Indy 500 spec
16:20roadsters
16:21to race the Formula
16:22One machinery
16:22of the day.
16:23A great story.
16:28Nice wide line
16:30out of the parabolica
16:30for Australian
16:31Mark Webber
16:32in his final
16:33four races
16:34driving for Jaguar
16:35before he moves on
16:36to BMW Williams
16:38next year.
16:39We'll take another
16:40break and be back
16:41with a moment
16:41live from Italy.
16:57Welcome back
16:57live to Friday
16:58practice at Monza.
17:00I'm Bob Barsha
17:01with David Hobbs
17:01and Steve Matchett
17:02while we were away
17:03to Kumasato
17:04when he won
17:05for the session
17:06at a 121.313
17:08still not down
17:09in the range
17:10that Michael
17:10Schumacher
17:11ran in the first
17:11session
17:12at 120.526
17:16Antonio Pisonja
17:17just set
17:17fast time
17:18of the session
17:18in the first sector
17:19but slowed down
17:20just a tad
17:21in the second.
17:22There's Pisonja
17:24we'll see how
17:24this one turns out
17:26it's clear that
17:26Williams have been
17:27hard at work
17:27in the Winton
17:28as well
17:29if we look
17:29at the front wing
17:31the outer parts
17:32of the elements
17:32of the front wing
17:33see how they
17:33pull up
17:34at very high
17:36like tusks
17:37almost to each
17:38side of the car
17:38compare that
17:39to the Jaguar
17:39in front
17:40the Jaguar
17:40are on a much
17:41more level
17:42main element
17:43on the car
17:46they've not
17:47had an awful
17:47lot of luck
17:47with this car
17:48have they really
17:48Williams
17:49as far as
17:49development work
17:50goes
17:52Bob USN
17:53earlier on
17:53that the
17:54twin keel
17:54chassis
17:54from Williams
17:55is about
17:55on the point
17:56of being
17:56replaced
17:57apparently so
17:57rumours are
17:58that next year's
17:59car will go
17:59back to the
18:00single keel
18:00philosophy
18:02this is interesting
18:03Pisonja
18:04has been
18:04inspired
18:05following that
18:05Jaguar
18:06has done
18:07the fastest
18:07first sector
18:08probably got
18:09a bit of a
18:09tow
18:10through the
18:10Curva Grande
18:12but the air
18:13being disturbed
18:13through there
18:14probably won't
18:14do any good
18:15through the
18:15Lesnos
18:18not making
18:18much ground
18:19on Clean
18:19just working
18:22on one sector
18:23at a time
18:23of course
18:25you've got
18:25to remember
18:25we keep
18:27on pointing
18:27out who's
18:28fastest
18:28and slowest
18:29etc.
18:29etc.
18:29on Friday
18:30really
18:30it really
18:31doesn't matter
18:32much today
18:32because
18:32you can't
18:34tell on
18:34times today
18:35because
18:35really
18:35they're doing
18:36so much
18:36setup
18:37and data
18:38acquisition
18:38tire
18:39airfield
18:39and all
18:40this
18:41brake wear
18:41obviously
18:41here
18:42brake wear
18:43is pretty
18:43big here
18:43isn't it?
18:44It is
18:44well it's
18:44those braking
18:45zones
18:45really
18:46towards the
18:46end
18:47of the
18:48main
18:48straight
18:49going down
18:49towards the
18:50Prima Variante
18:51where Michael
18:52Schumacher
18:52went off
18:53in that
18:53testing accident
18:55hard on the
18:56brakes there
18:56for that
18:56first chicane
18:58I mean
18:59you've got to
18:59think they're
18:59going 225
19:00miles an hour
19:01when they
19:01brake for this
19:02and as you
19:02can see
19:03this is one
19:04slow
19:04corner
19:05so you're
19:06losing
19:06you know
19:08200 miles
19:09an hour
19:09nearly
19:10it's a
19:10first gear
19:11corner
19:14there's
19:15Riccardo
19:15Zonta
19:16in the
19:16Toyota
19:17taking over
19:18the driving
19:18duties of
19:19Cristiano
19:19de Mala
19:20now have
19:21a look at
19:21the rear
19:21wing on
19:22the Toyota
19:22this is what
19:22we're talking
19:23about where
19:23Toyota having
19:24to run
19:26see there's
19:26just significantly
19:27more elements
19:28shown of the
19:28rear wing
19:29into the
19:29airflow
19:30now compare
19:31that
19:32really the
19:32extreme I've
19:33seen so far
19:33this morning
19:34is McLaren
19:34it looks
19:35almost like
19:35a hacksaw
19:36blade as
19:36opposed to
19:37a Formula
19:38One rear
19:39wing element
19:40hacksaw blade
19:41as in slicing
19:42through the
19:43air
19:44prefer butter
19:45knife myself
19:46no improvement
19:47for Zonta
19:47another shoe
19:49dropped in the
19:50Formula One
19:50silly season
19:51with the
19:51announcement
19:52this weekend
19:52that Toyota
19:53driver Olivier
19:54Panis of
19:54France will
19:55retire at
19:56the end of
19:56the year
19:57he will
19:58stay with
19:58Toyota as
19:59a test
19:59driver and
20:00team
20:01representative
20:01with sponsors
20:02and so
20:02forth but
20:03with one
20:04race win
20:05thus far
20:06on his
20:06Formula One
20:07resume
20:07Olivier Panis
20:08is about
20:09to hang
20:09it up
20:09well
20:10this will
20:10be his
20:11156th
20:11Grand Prix
20:13so he's
20:13going to
20:13end up
20:14with around
20:15about 160
20:15races under
20:16his belt
20:16but at
20:17the age
20:17of 38
20:19probably
20:19time he
20:20did hang
20:20up his
20:21helmet
20:21just turned
20:2238
20:22it was
20:2310 days
20:23ago
20:23in fact
20:24I shorted
20:25him a few
20:25years
20:26two weeks
20:26ago
20:26in Belgium
20:27I thought
20:27it was
20:2735
20:27that's
20:28Michael's
20:28age
20:31we're
20:31talking
20:31about how
20:31quick the
20:32cars are
20:32around here
20:33and we've
20:33seen that
20:34lap time
20:34drop
20:35Renault's
20:36lap
20:36time
20:36prediction
20:37a couple
20:38of weeks
20:38ago before
20:39the Monza
20:39test started
20:40they predicted
20:40their lap
20:41time around
20:41here in
20:42race conditions
20:42would be
20:43a 120.7
20:45we've already
20:46seen Michael
20:46Schumacher
20:47just take a
20:47fraction under
20:48that at a
20:48120.5
20:50good luck
20:51this is
20:52generally
20:53it's going to
20:54be considered
20:54this will
20:55be the
20:55fastest race
20:56in Formula
20:57One history
20:57throughout the
20:5850 odd
20:5854 years
20:59of the
20:59Formula One
21:00World Championship
21:02Montoya
21:02losing a bit
21:03in that
21:03final sector
21:05because
21:05he's still
21:06credited with
21:07the fastest
21:07ever pole
21:08lap in
21:09Formula One
21:09at 161
21:10mile an hour
21:11and Shane
21:11oh
21:11that may have
21:13had something
21:14to do with it
21:14back in
21:162002
21:16when he
21:17set the pole
21:17at 161
21:19point
21:21the other
21:21thing as well
21:22we have to
21:22bear in mind
21:23chaps
21:23talking about
21:24this being
21:24the fastest
21:24race
21:25if that proves
21:25to be the
21:25case
21:26why that
21:26is
21:26is because
21:27the FIA
21:28are going to
21:28mandate some
21:29fairly severe
21:30aerodynamic
21:31changes to the
21:31car next year
21:32and attempt to
21:33slow the
21:33cars
21:34Ferrari
21:34during the
21:35test
21:35as a
21:36courtesy
21:36to the
21:37FIA
21:37ran the
21:38wings
21:39specification
21:40for 2005
21:41now bear in
21:42mind this is
21:42a 2004
21:43chassis
21:43they were
21:44two and a
21:45half seconds
21:46off the
21:46pace
21:46in comparison
21:47to the
21:482004
21:49aerodynamics
21:49so that's
21:49why we're
21:50thinking
21:50this could
21:51be a
21:52memorable
21:53race for
21:53that
21:53if nothing
21:54else
21:54this is
21:54going to
21:54be a
21:55spectacular
21:55race
21:56on Sunday
21:56just for
21:56the pure
21:57speed
21:58of the
21:58thing
22:00when Pablo
22:01Montoya
22:02and his wife
22:02Connie
22:03they are
22:04expecting
22:07Connie
22:07who goes
22:07by her
22:08maiden
22:08name
22:08of
22:08Freidel
22:10is two
22:10months
22:11pregnant
22:12you do
22:13the math
22:16notice
22:16those rear
22:17wheels
22:17just ahead
22:17of the
22:18rear
22:18wheel
22:18there's
22:18new
22:18aerodynamic
22:19kickups
22:19on this
22:20car
22:20quite
22:20large
22:20ones
22:21cantilevered
22:22out
22:22over
22:22the
22:22side
22:23pod
22:26well
22:26of course
22:27very
22:27important
22:27here
22:28to reduce
22:29drag
22:30caused
22:30by those
22:31big
22:31rear
22:32wheels
22:32the most
22:33drag
22:33on
22:33these
22:34cars
22:34those
22:34comes
22:34in
22:34the
22:35wheel
22:35and
22:35with
22:36this
22:36long
22:36straight
22:36away
22:37here
22:37and
22:37sustained
22:37high
22:38speed
22:38as we've
22:38already said
22:3970%
22:39full throttle
22:41all the way
22:41around here
22:41to reduce
22:43drag
22:43it obviously
22:44didn't give
22:44much more
22:45downforce
22:45that kick
22:45up
22:46but it
22:46certainly
22:46helps
22:46reduce
22:47drag
22:47around
22:47those
22:47big
22:47rear
22:48wheels
23:18they would talk about putting the front wheels on the back to try and keep the drag down of course
23:24we didn't have the chicanes in so it was pretty much flat out all the way around mark weber's
23:27had a bit of a there ken tyrrell threatened to do that back in the uh in the early 90s
23:31as i recall
23:32before the scrutineers told him he could not put front wheels all the way around on the car to
23:37lower the aerodynamic resistance yeah now as you say but written into the technical regulations the
23:44dimensions of the rims and the dimensions of the tires are all preset and very carefully controlled
23:49by the fia during scrutineering they will check all the dimensions of the tires and they have to be
23:54what they are not allowed really to play around with them very much which raises the question i
23:58was just pondering i haven't looked at the rules to check this out but i wonder are you required to
24:03have a rear wing on the car i don't think you are required to have a rear wing on the
24:08car no you
24:09could take it off it's classed as being body working you know reality so you could take it
24:13off the car and run without it i don't believe there's a wreck in there that insisted you have
24:17to run it well one idea that popped into my head was the fact that they enlarged the end plates
24:21as we
24:21see what happened to mark weber in the braking zone at turn one they enlarged those rear wing end
24:25plates specifically to put sponsor logos on them yeah imagine you'd get a sharply worded memo from bernie
24:31ecclestone if you took them off there is jean todd who had some interesting comments this week
24:37among them the fact that he thinks that kenny reichmann would be a nice replacement for michael
24:41schumacher when the champ retires also that he considers ron dennis a bit of an arrogant fellow
24:52back at monza checking out giancarlo fisichella in his sauber
24:58revealed this week that
25:02the renault team wrote a check for about a million and a half
25:06to pry fisichella away from peter sauber sauber for his part has been saying wistfully it might
25:11be a good idea to have a former world champion in one of his cars next year which of course
25:16brought
25:16the name jacques villeneau to everyone's lips
25:23to kumasato remains the fast man of the session at 121.3
25:29the first time should drop a lot in the final moments of this session still with more than
25:3326 minutes to run we're watching ryan briscoe in the toyota
25:38now of course now we're watching michael schumacher those third drivers like ryan briscoe and
25:43david anthony davidson can do a lot more laps than these regular guys because their engine
25:47obviously doesn't matter it can expire and they can use as many tries as they like so davidson and
25:51briscoe both done 19 and 20 laps whereas michael schumacher so far he's done six
26:02looks like schumacher's on a hot one two tenths up with the second intermediate
26:06oh look at that coming out of that uh that uh valley anti-askari
26:14the brake adjustment
26:29he won but still half a second slowly went this morning but i think that'll come down
26:35i saw an interesting article in a technical magazine recently with ferrari's i.t director
26:42information technology the computer guy who pointed out and this raised one of steve matchett's eyebrows
26:48that the formula one transmissions are now shifting at a rate of 10 milliseconds think about that
26:56in my day the last year i put a gearbox together in the formula one car was 1998 and we've
27:02managed to get
27:03it down to about 30 milliseconds i think that they've managed to drop the shift time down to
27:07to 10 milliseconds is is quite surreal frankly that means it's theoretically possible to shift gears
27:1610 times in a second the gear ratios inside the boxes now have become much smaller and much finer the
27:25transmission ratios inside the ferrari for example towards the top end of the the gear ratios the ones
27:30you can't cope with quite so much torque for example third and fourth we're about six millimeters thick
27:36well that's less than three eighth of an inch and you're coping with what 910 920 brake horsepower
27:43at 19 000 turned at rpm the reason they've been out to do it is of course that the quality
27:48of material
27:49has increased an awful lot over the past few years and of course the quality of machining too on the
27:54modern machine tools they can get them cut so perfectly there you see great super slow-mo as it goes
28:01over
28:01the curb there but again david again we were talking about this earlier on the ratios you used to have
28:08in your car back when you were racing and the ratios that were in the benetton series of cars when
28:13i was
28:13putting them together much bigger and much heavier well of course in the old can-am cars in the uh
28:18early
28:1870s which produced about 700 horsepower but of course vastly more torque than these guys you know around
28:24about five from 600 pounds feet of torque the gears in the lg 400 gearbox which was the the gearbox
28:31of
28:31choice they're about an inch wide yeah we managed to get at least an inch wide especially like first and
28:37second right our ratios have dropped down to about half an inch wide during the during the 90s but now
28:43you know as i say really three eighths is an over exaggeration i would say more like a quarter of
28:47an inch
28:47six mil is about a quarter of an inch and those gear rings have to be so close together to
28:52help these
28:52fast gear changes pneumatically driven of course gear change time hydraulically when you were changing
28:58gear on a on a on a mclaren or a lola canon car the up shift was a was about
29:05a second and a half because
29:06the downshift would have been about half a second at least well you had to do all that double de
29:11-clutching
29:12well you had to because those great big gears had to be you had to make sure you've got them
29:15in mesh you
29:16know to get the blipping just right and um they were difficult to change gear because you have that
29:21massive gear that great big massive gear whirling around wouldn't actually synchronize it with the
29:27with the next ratio a clutch pedal what a quaint motion yeah i know yeah real race driving by gosh
29:35you're on verdheim there and the bright green jaguar won the fia formula 3000 race at this track
29:42twice over the years so he has fond memories of this place verdheim's done 17 laps in this session
29:51oh my and this morning he did uh he did 24 laps so he's a pretty busy day
29:57to the line he comes michael schumacher leads the session over takuma sato and juan pablo montoya
30:03we'll be back in just a moment as the times begin to drop in earnest
30:10welcome back young anthony davidson in the bar trying to put in a hot lap about two tenths off of
30:17the first intermediate half a second off at the second we're on board with him
30:39he's revs on the honda lucky just slightly more than the ferrari what a great racetrack
30:49watch him use the curbs
31:14and it's spectacular to watch probably even more spectacular to ride along as you go over those
31:20curbs but boy do they put a shock up through the suspensions let's take a closer look steve
31:24this is something that came in off the world feed earlier on have a look at this this is michael
31:29schumacher's bridgestone tire watch the weight transfer over the car as he hits the curbs not
31:34an awful lot of flexation in the sidewall a little bit but the tire basically clears the curbs
31:41now let's have a look at the michelin watch the sidewall here as it grips let's go grips let's go
31:46look at that incredible looks like it's absolutely walking absolutely now it's been said that michelin's
31:56weak spot on these range of tires are producing in 2004 is in the sidewall and that bears up whenever
32:02you see a michelin tire failure you see that the failure is always right around the circumference of
32:07the sidewall and the tread the entire outside of the tread rips off not really the case on a
32:12bridgestone tire where the tread itself seems to fail but those shots right there i think were great
32:16because it gave a good indication of the the valuability probably of the of the michelin
32:22sidewall in comparison to the bridgestone extraordinary loads these tires have to cope with
32:27and the temperatures this track is not terribly abrasive so the tire engineers pascal vasilom from
32:33michelin in particular has said because the tires don't lose a lot of tread due to wear
32:37they generate tremendous temperatures so you can't run a very very soft compound
32:44no and of course the shock load that goes through the tire and the whole car when you
32:49bounce over those curves is absolutely staggering yeah and also again looking at that sidewall
32:56situation the teams are stuck they they can't alter the size of the rims and they can't alter the
33:01side of the tires because again it's all specified in the technical regulations it would be a very
33:06easy cure for the tire suppliers to say well increase the diameter of the rim so we have to have
33:11smaller
33:11sidewalls and therefore we could control the sidewalls a lot better it's truly just going a little bit too
33:17hot into turn one but the regulations state that the rims have to be well it's a metric size now
33:22but the
33:23equivalent of 13 inches and the tire dimensions are also specified so again the teams are stuck with what
33:28we've got the reason for that historically is because the fia wanted to control the diameter of the
33:34carbon brake discs and if you reduce the size of the rim you have to run a smaller brake disc
33:40inside
33:40so to control the car's braking ability right we're seeing right here actually under full braking
33:45to force the teams to use smaller brake discs they they specified the diameter of the rim at 13 inches
33:53the gray hair belongs to flavio briatore the renault team manager turning to our celebrity page
34:00flavio was recently spotted with his newest romantic interest actress nicole kidman
34:10he's not right i have nothing else to say about that how does he do it supermodels super actresses
34:17he must have quite a line
34:22Fernando Alonso call last year he went bounding across those curbs and took a few of the aerodynamic
34:27bits off the car and it didn't slow him down one bit towards the end of the race minus his
34:32barge boards
34:33minus some of the under train minus the other bits and bobs he managed to crank out one of the
34:37fastest laps of race about four laps to go so i guess it was lighter i guess his teammate jarna
34:45truly
34:46has been the international man of mystery this weekend announcing he has signed a contract with
34:50a top team for next year but he refuses to say who it is everyone of course assumes it's toyota
35:02and that's a pretty good time for posonia makes one question you're not truly's definition of a tough
35:08team if it's true but there it is sir frank williams looking on
35:22love that corner it just goes on forever as you heard on board with anthony davidson a moment ago
35:28you just go up through the gearbox and keep your right foot planted
35:32posonia bumps his williams teammate want pablo montoya into fourth we'll take another break
35:38posonia is on a hot lap we'll tell you how it turns out
35:45welcome back to monza we promised we'd show you how antonio posonia's lap turned out
35:49and here it is
35:52down at the parabolica sir frank williams looking unamused minus frank looks unamused most of the
35:59time but um especially when it's his car that's just been shunted yeah posonia was fastest in the big
36:05test they had here a week ago um ended up fastest of all he was third and on that other
36:13on that uh
36:14hot lap although it didn't look like it was going to be anywhere close to the lap that put him
36:19in
36:19third place at a 121.264 nevertheless fast enough to breach the gravel trap at the parabolica and clout
36:27the tire wall there's his teammate one pablo montoya getting in the way of one of the jaguars ribbons
36:34barichello backs it in barichello said this weekend i don't care about my place in the championship i
36:42just want to win a race in 2004. it looks so inelegant somehow doing a is your okay is your
36:48balance
36:48it the balance test there it is that's the shot we've been looking for all year look how the nose
36:54of the
36:54williams dips down at the front a couple of years ago you would have seen the weight transfer push
36:59it the other way remember you've got the transmission the engine the fuel capacity all at the back of that
37:04hoist you would expect the engine to to tip the scale the other way but now because of this desire
37:10to push the weight forward to get the front tires working they've probably got something like 80 kilos
37:16of ballast what 160 pounds worth of steel right over the front axle that's what's causing the front to dip
37:22that brings on yet another as that uh leads us to the fact that charlie whiting wants the teams to
37:27take that ballast out he doesn't like those big chunks of steel whirling around these tracks at 200
37:33mile an hour and he wants the minimum weight to be changed on the vehicles so they don't have to
37:37have
37:37the ballast you made the point steve that uh in jack villeneuve's big wreck here a few years ago
37:43a sheet of that ballast i mean sheet pressed very thinly and placed up at the front of the splitter
37:49it was later learned detached itself from the car went through the fence and miraculously between
37:57seating levels of the grandstand where no one was sitting yeah scything through the forest behind
38:02it's what they call the the shadow plate or the tea tray and tea in pit lane parlance it's that
38:08part of
38:09the floor which sits right beneath the driver's legs because the car uses these sculptured keel these days
38:15which is sort of right underneath the driver's legs they still have to have that flat panel there you
38:19see it right there the the part that's furthest towards the front again you see that jordan it's
38:24every race it's the same trying to break for that first chicane the front of the car just twitching
38:30about like mad now they did 1500 miles of testing here just over a week ago you thought they could
38:34have
38:34sort of tracked some of this twitch down well i wonder if it has something to do with what steve
38:38is just
38:38talking about that front end weight bias that just you know gets the pendulum effect going it could
38:44well be i was talking to some of the renault guys about the i mean this seems odd i was
38:49talking to
38:50renault about the problems with the jordan but the wind tunnel guys are fairly switched on at renault
38:54and they were saying the problem is they just have not got sufficient downforce on the car well here
38:59at monza you would expect them they could run more wing and get around it that way but nevertheless even
39:04here they have to sacrifice the downforce to optimize those straight line speeds you could
39:10put more downforce on the car and make it more stable under braking but you would be so slow down
39:14the states that the engineers can't afford to run it yeah you'll see how much time he lost there
39:19usually a problem at lesmo one leads to a bigger problem at lesmo two but he jumped on the brakes
39:24right
39:25after that moment at lesmo one and paid for it on the clock
39:33interesting if we stay on board here as we go into braking turn one and see what happens down there
39:37well you could just hear the hesitation going through the parabolica
39:43this is the part of the track bob where we're talking about brake wear earlier on and just before we
39:47went to a break a couple of segments ago huge amount of brake smoke of the black carbon brake dust
39:52being thrown out of the front rims from the rotors what are we seeing here one of the toyota's
39:58zonta locking up got to three laps from the finish of the belgian grand prix two weeks ago with a
40:05possible podium in sight only to have the engine let go at the back very disappointing for him he had
40:12a grand
40:12run there qualified dead last had a problem in in the pre-qualifying spun at uh puhon and ends up
40:19on the
40:19back of the grid the toyota engineers having looked at the data on zonta's car after that engine failure
40:24said you know we saw nothing to indicate we're going to have an engine failure we expected to see the
40:29temperatures rising because of the safety car period we looked at the data and there was nothing to
40:34indicate we were going to have an absolute catastrophic engine failure within a quarter of a
40:39second they took the engine back to japan stripped it down and said they could find nothing there was
40:43nothing to indicate what it caused it what do you do when that happens all you can do is build
40:47another one and go racing yeah those teammates just go out the pits l rubens about time to make a
40:55lunge at
40:55a quick time in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying which you'll see of course here on speed channel
41:01beginning at seven excuse me eight o'clock eastern time seven thirty on the brain this weekend i'm ready
41:07for race day at monza takuma sato currently in fourth place there's kimmy raikkonen no sign of his
41:16teammate david koultar we haven't seen him all day this weekend takuma sato was presented with the
41:28konfartigianato motori prize i'm sure i'm not pronouncing that correctly
41:32it's an award previously won by michael schumacher alan prost mika hakkanen
41:37who began giving it out back in 1983 it's voted annually by a panel including former italian formula
41:43one drivers officials and journalists and the prize is in recognition of a standout driver in modern
41:50formula one this year they chose takuma sato there's kimmy raikkonen through that first sector quicker than
41:56michael schumacher
42:01interesting to see what raikkonen manages to pull out of the bag here they were distinctly off the
42:07pace in the in the testing in that four or five day test they had prior to the race weekend
42:10starting
42:12not using a lot of road coming out lesmo so if this is a quick sector they've got the handling
42:16just
42:17pretty spot bollock on here they certainly have david koultar
42:33oh my goodness adrian newey looking on his contract is up in the middle of next season and everyone's
42:40wondering whether he will resign with mclaren or go gardening to the line and into first place goes
42:48kimmy raikkonen who has definitely made the most of the mere 11 laps he has done all day
42:55here at we'll take a quick break and return
43:02welcome back there's the mclaren crew as always absolutely convulsed with joy at the fact that their
43:09man kimmy raikkonen is fastest in the session let's look at rubens bradakello who gave it a shot
43:14but came up just short he is now p2 five hundredths of a second slower than raikkonen
43:24well that's a pretty pathetic effort isn't it yeah raikkonen's time 20.8 and he was fastest i think
43:31through the first sector and the third sector on that lap but it was only the second sector is just
43:34a fraction off otherwise he would have had all three in the bag it's pretty impressive
43:39i have to say that second sector the one he missed out on is the the two lesmos and then
43:44that run
43:46the start of the run down to the uh variante escarion onto the parabolica
43:52well you david coolthard fans we haven't seen him at all in this session he is 10th
43:56at a 122.0 he hasn't done that many laps he's only done 12 laps these guys have all done
44:03roundabout well as you said raikkonen has done many he's done what 16 all day
44:0911 in this well 12 now in this session
44:14they've obviously got to do some sort of a run here to get some idea their fuel consumption and
44:19tire wear and that sort of thing you have to put at least a few laps together
44:23michelin has four dry weather compounds here this weekend so yes they have some decisions yeah
44:30and they know from their experience at hungary where they made absolutely the wrong choice going
44:34with a hard tire expecting hot weather that they never got just how important that tire decision can
44:40be and of course the weather forecast for this weekend is a little bit iffy
44:45that's true it's supposed to deteriorate the balance of the weekend it's supposed to get worse and worse
44:49than heavy rain on monday but you know these weather forecasts you're going to be out a few hours and
44:52um
44:55we could have a very interesting rate ooh and schumacher obviously trying fairly hard
45:00the old ferrari the cheese grater treatment
45:08wide on the outside into the gravel
45:14not at all pleased no doubt to see kimmy raikkonen's mclaren
45:18up there at the top of the chart
45:20even if it is just friday
45:23well they'll certainly be working towards that qualifying
45:26setup now as checks rightly say the decision on this tire compound between the hard and soft
45:31has to be made by nine o'clock tomorrow morning
45:36whatever the compound on that one it's very flat now
45:42Giancarlo Fisichella takes it right to the house
45:45that incredible slow down before they cross that line down to 60 kilometers an hour what's that 45 miles an
45:51hour
45:56a boot
45:57yeah of course in my day there was no speed limit in the pit lane at all until those awful
46:02which is why you're so athletic 37 miles an hour
46:05well that practice but it's 37 37 miles now yeah sacra blood
46:10now those that pit lane speed limit didn't come in until
46:14monaco i mean 1994 the race after him of course when we had those awful accidents in the
46:19in the pit lane but before then you're right they just went through at full racing speed absolutely
46:24unbelievable because if you're in the first pit by the time you got to the end of the pit lane
46:27you'd be at
46:28130 mile an hour yeah
46:32that's how it should be of course i remember men
46:39there's a shot of that renaud rear wing chaps look at it hardly anything into the airflow
46:45Jarno truly got a brand new chassis this weekend as we've mentioned in the previous races he's been
46:51complaining ever since he announced he would leave the team at the end of the season he's complained
46:55that his car somehow mysteriously hasn't been everything that he thinks his teammates is
47:01so they've given him a brand new chassis this weekend to see what he can do
47:06session is officially over and Kimi Raikkonen officially leads it
47:12over the two ferraris barkello and schumacher as we watch timo glock giving it a little late session flare
47:27not sure exactly what rubens is doing here surely the flag had waved by the time he crossed the line
47:35oh maybe he's just doing one more well he just came
47:38hard lap for just took the checkers yeah no there he goes
47:43he's just doing one more well he's doing one more well he's doing one more well he's doing one more
47:48women's came out on his first hot lap this morning and started waving to the not his hot
47:51lap excuse me on his warm-up lap and started waving to the fans around the track
48:00by the look of the grandstands from some of those high shots perhaps you knew them all
48:04yeah perhaps so not a big crowd here on friday it's reported that the double championships for
48:10constructors and of course michael schumacher's seventh driver's title it cost ferrari about three
48:15and a half million dollars in bonuses to the factory staff and those bonuses go right down to
48:24the custodial crew everyone at ferrari is made to feel that their effort helps put rubens and michael
48:31on the podium also this weekend michael showed up with his championship cap that very expensive cap
48:39paid for by a german financial services firm it has a row of stars on the brow of the cap
48:46and a row of
48:47stripes on the brim commemorating a seven championships formula one wet blanket bernie
48:54ecclestone came out and said he'd rather michael didn't wear that cap because after all he's not
48:59officially the world champion until the fia says he was all part of the glamour in front of formula one
49:08we'll take a break and return to wrap things up from monza as friday practice is now complete stay with
49:14us
49:21welcome back to the ottobodromo nazionale di monza side of this weekend's italian formula one grand
49:27prix friday practice is now complete boys check them out well kimmy raikkonen mclaren and michelin
49:34continued to throw the gauntlet down to ferrari kimmy raikkonen to winner two weeks ago in spa
49:40fastest in the session rubens barrachello and michael schumacher and the two ferraris next
49:44jensen button who we did not see do that time it turned out a bigger time to be our honda
49:49and
49:49personia who uh trying to do it again crashed at the parabolica sato who led the time charts for a
49:56little bit down there in sixth spot then montoya davidson who's a tester i won't be seeing him
50:01again this weekend alonzo in ninth it's truly there in 11th spot in the row i expected truly
50:07to be quicker than that i don't quite understand what was going off with his car well they're holding
50:11him back yeah that's right briscoe in the toyota not a bad day for here but nevertheless massive good
50:16performance but but further down there i'm surprised to see jaguar so far off the pace
50:24and the usual suspects at the back of the field trailed by nick heidfeld whose ford engine let go
50:30on his very first lap that'll wrap things up for our first hour of coverage of the 2004 italian
50:36grand prix weekend here on speed join us tonight at 12 midnight eastern for formula one decade this
50:41time highlighting the 1994 japanese grand prix and bring your umbrella and tune in tomorrow morning
50:46at 8 a.m eastern for coverage of qualifying and monza and check out our newest formula one
50:51program inside grand prix early sunday morning at 1 a.m and 7 a.m eastern finally sunday morning
50:57live coverage of the italian grand prix begins at 7 30 a.m eastern with the acura pre-race show
51:03and
51:03peter windsor until tomorrow's qualifying coverage for david hobbs and steve matchett i'm bob marsha
51:09we'll see you tomorrow from monza arimaneci