No tyre temp problems in 2010, says Michael
Testing has indicated that failing to generate heat into tyres quickly in 2010 will not be a factor
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Friday, 12, Feb 2010 02:12
By Adam Leveridge
Williams technical chief Sam Michael is confident the problems teams had with generating tyre temperature in 2009 will be a thing of the past in 2010.
Ten teams, Williams included, are present at the second pre-season test of the year in Jerez, and the mix of wet and dry weather conditions is providing engineers with valuable data for developing their 2010 challengers.
Speaking to reporters in the Jerez paddock on Thursday, Michael said: "We had a little bit of wear on the hard compound, but it wasn't a problem because we had our first run on Thursday mid-morning, so the track was pretty green anyway."
Michael thinks this suggests the problems some teams had with generating heat into their tyres in 2009 won't arise again this year.
"I don't think we will have that problem, especially with the front tyres as, with them being smaller, the stress has gone up," said Michael.
"But we don't have any problem in generating temperature, that's for sure, and in these conditions where the track temperature is 20 degrees and the circuit is green, it's only going to get better from here."
Reigning GP2 champion and Williams' new signing Nico Hulkenburg drove the FW32 for the first two days in Jerez and handed the car over to his experienced team-mate Rubens Barrichello on Friday.
With the exception of a hydraulic failure on Thursday putting the team three hours behind schedule, Michael is quite satisfied with Williams' rate of progress so far.
"It went very well yesterday in terms of miles," said Michael.
"We got some dry running in today, but we had a few reliability issues this morning, which cost us the a few hours, so that was a bit annoying, but that's what happens with a new car.
"We identified the problem straight away, but it just took a long time to fix because it showered the clutch with oil, forcing us to change that and other bits and pieces."
And the Williams technical chief said he isn't concerned about the pace Ferrari have shown over the past two weeks in Valencia and Jerez.
"We would have to go out and do an equivalent run to know that," said Michael.
"We planned to do that this afternoon, but the issues we had with our hydraulics meant we didn't get off of our morning setup programme.
"It was a good run, but it didn't look scary and we're not a million miles away from that."