PICTURES:MARKSUTTON;ZAKMAUGER56 GP RACING APRIL 2020
manner. And I do think that you don’t measure
to what extent short-term objectives and
pressure, which is normal in Formula 1, can have
a negative impact on moralebut a lso on the way
the team works. The team wanted towork too
fast. So rather than really understanding the
fundamental physics that we lacked, we were
looking to speed up the process.
“We were a bit caughtbetween the pressure
put on us by the arrival of Ricciardo, thepressure
put on us by McLaren’s revival, which led to
an amplification of Enstone’s way of doing
things, which was not healthy or robustenough.
When all is going well, it’s not too visible, it’s
acceptable, but when it starts to get tight, that’s
when it pushes you to make big mistakes.
“That’s why I don’t regret last year. It blew the
reality right in our face, the reality that we had
fundamentals thatwere not good when we werein that pressure zone. We were
in a situation where we had to
make the changes that have
been made.”
It was thefailure of the
mid-season upgrade package
that proved the tipping point. As Prost points
out, the RS19 was regularly shipping three or
four tenths inlong corners because inconsistent
downforce levels made it unstable, reducing
driver confidence. Setting up the car to
understeer during the first half of the season
was just a sticking-plaster solution to this, since
that cost timeelsewhere around the lap. But
the upgrade package – not just a revised nose
and bargeboards, but a complete change to the
cooling architecture to reduce the volume of the
rear bodywork, plus diffuser changes – failedto
deliver the additionaldownforce expected.
The issues were more fundamental: theRS19’s front wing, nose, bargeboard and sidepod
configuration wasn’t managing the outwash from
the wing properly, or the turbulent wake of the
front tyres. This meant theteam couldn’t unlock
the theoretical performance ofthe u pgrades
downstream, and it’s why the entire front end
of the RS20 is very different. Look around the
sidepods and you’ll see they start further back,
allowing more volume for management of the
airflow passing between the nose and front tyres.
The RS20’s performance during testing gave
grounds for optimism, particularly in terms of
the chassis dynamics, and Ricciardo“WE WERE A BIT CAUGHT BETWEEN THE PRESSURE PUT ON USBY
THE ARRIVAL OF RICCIARDO, THE PRESSURE PUT ON USBY
McLAREN’S REVIVAL”CYRIL ABITEBOULRicciardowillnowhave
fewerracesthisseason
inwhichtodecideifhis
futurelieswithRenaultPICTURES:MARKSUTTON;ZAKMAUGER56 GP RACING APRIL 2020
manner. And I do think that you don’t measure
to what extent short-term objectives and
pressure, which is normal in Formula 1, can have
a negative impact on moralebut a lso on the way
the team works. The team wanted towork too
fast. So rather than really understanding the
fundamental physics that we lacked, we were
looking to speed up the process.
“We were a bit caughtbetween the pressure
put on us by the arrival of Ricciardo, thepressure
put on us by McLaren’s revival, which led to
an amplification of Enstone’s way of doing
things, which was not healthy or robustenough.
When all is going well, it’s not too visible, it’s
acceptable, but when it starts to get tight, that’s
when it pushes you to make big mistakes.
“That’s why I don’t regret last year. It blew the
reality right in our face, the reality that we had
fundamentals thatwere not good when we werein that pressure zone. We were
in a situation where we had to
make the changes that have
been made.”
It was thefailure of the
mid-season upgrade package
that proved the tipping point. As Prost points
out, the RS19 was regularly shipping three or
four tenths inlong corners because inconsistent
downforce levels made it unstable, reducing
driver confidence. Setting up the car to
understeer during the first half of the season
was just a sticking-plaster solution to this, since
that cost timeelsewhere around the lap. But
the upgrade package – not just a revised nose
and bargeboards, but a complete change to the
cooling architecture to reduce the volume of the
rear bodywork, plus diffuser changes – failedto
deliver the additionaldownforce expected.
The issues were more fundamental: theRS19’s front wing, nose, bargeboard and sidepod
configuration wasn’t managing the outwash from
the wing properly, or the turbulent wake of the
front tyres. This meant theteam couldn’t unlock
the theoretical performance ofthe u pgrades
downstream, and it’s why the entire front end
of the RS20 is very different. Look around the
sidepods and you’ll see they start further back,
allowing more volume for management of the
airflow passing between the nose and front tyres.
The RS20’s performance during testing gave
grounds for optimism, particularly in terms of
the chassis dynamics, and Ricciardo“WE WERE A BIT CAUGHT BETWEEN THE PRESSURE PUT ON USBY
THE ARRIVAL OF RICCIARDO, THE PRESSURE PUT ON USBY
McLAREN’S REVIVAL”CYRIL ABITEBOULRicciardowillnowhave
fewerracesthisseason
inwhichtodecideifhis
futurelieswithRenault