Managing tyres an imperative task for the coming Grands Prix says Mark Gillan

Managing tyres properly is going to be integral for any team to be serious contention for a race win says Williams’ chief operations engineer Mark Gillan.

The recently concluded Chinese Grand Prix was won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg who besides doing well at the qualifiers to land a pole position judged the tyre strategy during the race perfectly.

Rosberg used a two-stop strategy at the race which although slowed his pace at the end of the race but the gap between him and the second placed Jenson Button was large enough for him to maintain his position.

“Tyre management is fundamental,” Gillan told AUTOSPORT. “The tyres are the number one item on the car, followed by aero and then engine. But understanding the tyres and managing the tyres is the key to unlocking race performance. Qualifying as well, but of particular performance in race.”

“Aerodynamics is still a key driver and better aerodynamic performance and efficiency will deliver more laptime, as long as you don’t upset the tyre balance, and that’s something that’s always a factor,” he added.

He said that the balance of the car is important too but that has always been an issue but this year it is not just the aerodynamics of the car that need to be looked into for balance but also the whole mechanical balance. Finding the right balance between tyre usage in qualifying and the race is also going to be vital.

Gillan though said that he is optimistic that Williams will be able to manage the tyres properly under any weather conditions whether cool or hot, while admitting that it is going to be a tough task to do.

It will become really interesting in this race Mercedes and Rosberg have done an excellent job. The whole race was so tightly fought that it looked like the whole race was in lap 3 and 4 stage.

It will be interesting to see how Williams fare as the season progresses, so far their performances have been very positive and it is good that lower teams are working hard to move up to the midfields.

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Posted by Kashif Khan on Apr 22 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.