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It’s been a busy time for American Scott Speed and the rest of the Formula One drivers, who have had four races plus testing in the last five weeks.
First came the North American F1 double-header with the Canadian Grand Prix on June 10 at Montreal followed by the United States Grand Prix on June 17 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Next was testing at Britain’s Silverstone circuit, and then the French Grand Prix on July 1. Then it was back to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on July 8.
Speed posted the 19th quickest time on the first day of practice Friday, July 6.
“We had quite a lot of fuel in the car all day, ” he said of his Toro Rosso Ferrari. “With the same amount of fuel that we ran in France, when we had just a few gallons in the car and it was light, we’d be at the top five of the time sheets again.
“It is going to be more difficult here for us than in France because our car is affected a bit more in racing conditions with being close to other cars. ”
While the rain forecast for the weekend stayed away, Friday was a blustery, windy day.
“Our car seems to be quite difficult in handling all the wind out there right now, ” Speed said. “So we struggle a bit, in that sense. In general, our pace is very similar to the Red Bulls, so that’s good for us and bad for them. I expect a very similar race weekend to the French Grand Prix. ”
In qualifying on the next day, both Speed and his teammate, Tonio Liuzzi, were quick enough to make it through the first session and into the second session. They ended up lining up 15th and 16th, respectively, for the race.
“Our pace was similar to what we had in France at Magny-Cours, ” Speed said. “When it comes time for everyone to go for a qualifying lap, me and Tonio have a bit less in hand. Maybe it’s because we push one another in practice, so we are getting the most out of the car then, without keeping anything in reserve for qualifying. Fifteen and 16 is not bad, but we need to find a couple more tenths of a second to really be fighting in the middle of the pack. ”
Toro Rosso’s technical director, Giorgio Ascanelli, was pleased with the work of his drivers.
“I thought it would be difficult to get into Q2, and 15th and 16th is about what I hoped we could achieve, ” he said. “Scott did a great job this afternoon, and he was on it. As I said before, the pack is very close in terms of lap times, and we have to be happy with this performance.
“Unfortunately, we had a gearbox problem with Tonio, which at the moment I assume is different from anything we have seen so far. Therefore we will have to analyze it now, and I am sure it will be fixed for the race. ”
Just before the start of the race, Felipe Massa stalled his Ferrari and had to go to the pit lane. That moved Speed up to 14th. Speed then made one of his trademark lightning getaways and finished the first lap in 12th place.
Speed was in 11th spot when he made his pit stop at the end of Lap 25. The stop dropped him to 14th, but he would have finished higher than that because other drivers ahead of him still had to make their stops.
But Speed was destined not to finish. It was a classic racing case of two cars won’t fit into one place on the track. Speed had moved over to let race leader Fernando Alonso go by and then moved back to protect his position.
Alex Wurz, trailing in his AT&T Williams-Toyota, made what Speed called an “optimistic” maneuver and dived for the narrowing hole between Speed’s car and the edge of the track.
The left front suspension of the Toro Rosso crumpled, and Speed was out of the race.
Wurz kept going and finished 13th.
Speed’s British Grand Prix was over, but his hectic schedule continues. Next on the agenda for the F1 teams is a three-day test session at Belgium’s Spa circuit from July 10-12.
