Alonso's Blog: A hot weekend in prospect…

I’ve been in Kuala Lumpur since Monday already. As my trainer Edoardo Bendinelli has previously explained to you (see The battle with the heat is played out in advance) it’s important to acclimatise quickly to the extreme conditions, especially for us Europeans when we’re in this corner of the globe. Yesterday, for example, I played Golf with Edoardo and my manager Luis: we were the only ones on the course as no one was prepared to venture out in the heat!

This is the longest race in terms of distance, but above all, it’s the most tiring from the physical point of view: it is vital to be as well prepared as possible and, towards the end, that can also make a difference out on track. I’m doing all I can to be ready for this weekend, just as is the team; all the guys here in the garage in Sepang, for whom it is also very draining to work in these conditions and all the people back home in Maranello. In Malaysia, we will once again be racing on the defensive. There’s no other way we can go about it, given that the F2012 is practically identical to what we ran in Australia. We will have to try and adapt it as well as possible, knowing it won’t be easy. There are two points we will have to work on with great attention: finding the right compromise in terms of the aerodynamic balance and the tyre degradation. Sepang has two real straights where, because they are very long, a lack of top speed carries a higher price than in Melbourne, where the two straights on which you could use DRS were reasonably short.

We will have to see how the Pirelli tyres behave in the high temperatures here in Malaysia. Last year, we ended up doing four stops so we will see if the situation is the same this time. We will have the Medium and Hard compounds while last year we ran Soft-Hard. Given that this year, the four types of Pirelli tyre are much more similar to one another in terms of performance over a lap, maybe it will be a different picture.

By the second free practice session on Friday, we should already start to get a more accurate impression. The word “should” applies because every session here, especially the one in the mid-afternoon, can be affected by rain. There is no other place in the world, the Formula 1 world that is, where it can go from sunshine to torrential rain in the space of a few minutes. Not even at Spa is the variability so acute. Those on the pit wall will have to keep their eyes peeled and look at the radar carefully to be ready for any possible change in the weather.

At the moment, the forecast is for a high chance of rain, both for qualifying and the race, but honestly, I don’t have much faith in the forecast. The important thing is to react promptly and grab every opportunity. The only thing you can be absolutely certain of is that it will be hot, very hot…

Source: Ferrari.com

Driving with Kimi – Kaj Lindström; The asphalt is hot

In the coming weekend one of the season's most interesting and most anticipated rallies will be driven. Rally Bulgaria is a new race for every driver in the series and it's the first asphalt rally of the season. So we finally get to the proper surface: hot asphalt.

Hi all again.

A couple of weeks ago we drove a two-day finishing test which went well. We managed to improve the car's set-up significantly compared to Italy. Kimi was able to try his own ideas with the set-up in peace and with their help the car became different and clearly better and faster. The test was all in all a very positive event and Kimi drove the rally car nicely on asphalt. We both feel really good about taking part in Rally Bulgaria.

On asphalt Kimi is like at home. He likes to drive a car whose behavior is neutral and which slightly oversteers in the corners. The main thing is that the car turns well into corners. In the tests, as well as the test race in Italy, we were in good speed all the time.

During the coming rally we are allowed to use 40 different tires which we have to choose from 40 hard and 20 soft compound tires. In the tests Kimi was able to drive on such a soft driving line that our tires wore a lot less than for example our team mate Sebastien Ogier's tires. Kimi's action behind the wheel was expressionless but extremely efficient: when he brakes he does it once and we accelerate he immediately presses the pedal to the floor. He does nothing in vain. In the tests it was easy to see that Kimi has driven on asphalt all his life: the tires don't become heated and ware as much as usually with rally drivers on asphalt.

So the Rally Bulgaria route is new for everyone. It's possibly also easier to pace note since asphalt roads usually miss those crests after which the road takes a turn into some direction. Asphalt roads are usually more logical in nature than gravel roads: you can usually always see from the car what is coming.

In the asphalt tests it showed from Kimi's driving that he didn't have to think about the basics of rally driving anymore because on asphalt they came from his spine. Therefore there's one variable less for Kimi compared to gravel. We feel confident going into the race.

Rally Bulgaria starts on Friday morning at 9 am and it ends on Sunday at 2 pm. The centre of the rally is the city of Borovets which lies about 100 km south of the capital Sofia. The concentrated service park of the race lies about 25 km away from Borovets at the Dolna Banya airport. There are 14 special stages in the rally, the combined length of which is 354,10 km. All the special stages are asphalt covered: some of them are in better shape on the surface, some in worse.

Let's hope that there's still vacation weather in Finland after a week. I'll get back to you then.

Kaitsu

Source: Kolmeks.fi
Courtesy: Dracaena