Q&A WITH DAVE LAMB

What challenges does this circuit present for the engine?
Montreal is a track that is hard on engines as the power sensitivity is high when compared to other circuits. There are two long straights, so a high percentage of the lap is spent at wide open throttle. Equally there are some slow corners and hairpin turns which require heavy braking, meaning it is important to keep the rear of the car stable with a low downforce setup. To achieve this we tend to use a high amount of engine braking support, which can help the driver. Gear ratio selection is also a challenge to get right as the wind can change direction down the long straight. If you get this wrong, you will have an end of straight speed deficit.

The weather was very wet today, but is predicted to improve later in the weekend – is this an issue for you?
It does not change greatly the actual way you use the engine. Fortunately we still got an accurate gauge on fuel consumption during P2, and we will correct these figures for the race conditions.

What was the programme for today?
It was very wet in FP1 so we changed the programme accordingly and carried out all our tests in FP2. Pastor had a big accident in FP1 when he went into the wall at turns 3 and 4, but fortunately he was fine. Engine wise we did not try anything particularly new; we instead concentrated on keeping the engine performance stable so the team could look at the overall car performance. Valtteri tried some new engine overrun settings in FP2 that he seemed happy with and we will carry this forward into tomorrow. The pick up out of the hairpin was also good, so from our perspective it was a positive day.

Will you be running new engines tomorrow?
Yes, on both cars. Montreal has one of the highest power factors of the year so having some extra horsepower will be useful. This is on target with our engine plan established at the beginning of the season.