Welcome to The Briefing, where you can get a jumpstart on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with our guide to the key topics.

Every race weekend, we’ll speak to one of our engineers to discuss the key talking points ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix and simplify them so that you can dive straight into the action with a better idea of what to expect and what you should be looking out for.  

This week, powered by Google Cloud, we spoke to Adrian Goodwin. Adrian explains the impact of returning to our usual Grand Prix format, with three practice sessions, following two Sprint weekends in a row. We also explore the impact of the changes that have been made to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and our plans for practice, including our options for our rear wing level.

Here’s what you need to know…

1. After two Sprint weekends, we’re returning to our regular format

This weekend is ‘normal’ in the sense that we don’t have a Sprint programme to contend with, but it doesn’t feel particularly standard because we’re not hugely familiar with the circuit. Last year’s race was cancelled, and 2022 was rain-affected. So, there are a lot of unknowns.

2. There have been some changes to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari

In addition, the kerbs have been changed all around the circuit since our last visit. The apex kerbs used to be the triple-sausage type, which the drivers could use. Like other circuits, to counter the risk of launching the car, Imola has removed all of those and put a concrete, serrated kerb on top. These are quite harsh and will do a good job of stopping the drivers from using them, so there’s some learning to be done there.

3. We’re going a step softer on the tyre compounds

We know from the 2022 Sprint – which was dry – that graining on the front-right was an issue, and needed careful management. The temperatures should be a bit hotter this year, which perhaps shifts it away from managing the front and more towards the normal rear temperature management, but we’ll have to find out.

This has the potential to influence strategy. In the past, we’ve gone to Imola assuming a one-stop race. The pit-loss time is among the highest across the season, and historically, overtaking has also been difficult. This pushes you towards the one-stop option. However, overtaking in 2022 was a bit easier, and with the softer tyre compounds going into this weekend, we’re open-minded as to whether it’s a one-stop race or two. Figuring this out is a big topic of interest today.

If you can’t look after the front-right tyre, you’re vulnerable to being overtaken because if you can’t get out of Rivazza well, you are exposed in the DRS zone on the start-finish straight. The one-stop would be ideal, but if tyre degradation is higher, this might push it to two. This can switch quite quickly according to conditions and will be one of our key learning points across practice.

The C5 will be too fragile to race, so the decision will be around which combination of Medium and Hard compounds offers the best race strategy.

4. Preparing for the bumps on Imola’s circuit  

One characteristic of Imola that hasn’t changed is the circuit's bumpy nature. This is always the main challenge of dialling in the set-up. There’s a big bump at T11 [Acqua Minerali] that is quite limiting, but generally, there are bumps before most of the braking zones. The limitation will be getting the ride height in the right place for T5 [Villeneuve] and T11.

You want to run stiff to get the car lower, but you need compliance in the rear suspension to cope with the bumps – and also to ride the kerbs at T14-T15 [Variante Alta] because that’s absolutely critical for lap time.

5. Making a decision on our rear wing level

Imola is a medium-downforce track, and our options are the version introduced in Bahrain and the slightly lower-downforce version used in Saudi Arabia. Setting up for a pure quali lap, you’d be more towards the Bahrain version, but if you want something a bit more raceable, then you will want the Saudi Arabian version.

6. Our plans for practice

There’s no plan to split the spec between the cars in practice. Oscar gets the floor and bodywork that Lando had in Miami, so we have some testing to do to understand the package a bit better, given the limited amount of practice at the Sprint last time out.

That said, there’s plenty of background tests to do, because the programme has been put on hold for the last two races, which have been Sprints. There’s also a few sanity checks to do for items we’ll be introducing in Monaco next week. This will introduce some variation between the cars, but primarily, they’ll be kept in the same spec to maximise learning.

The tests we’re doing mean the cars will be carrying rakes for the early runs, which will require the drivers to stay off the kerbs at the start of FP1. We’ll also see extra pit stops as the drivers swap front wings to test various items. Because we haven’t done much of this over the last two races, and can’t particularly prioritise it in Monaco, it’s going to be a busy Friday here.

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