Modifactions en route to Imola

By Karl King
April 18 2006

Kimi Raikkonen finished the last Grand Prix in Australia second only to Championship leader Fernando Alonso. McLaren will head to the next race in San Marino with some new modifications to the MP4-21 which the team tested in Barcelona and Paul Ricard during the three-week Easter break.

Kimi talked about the test and previewed the next GP, "We had a solid session at the test in Barcelona last week, we were able to complete the MP4-21 development work planned for the session and continue the progress made by Pedro and Gary at the Paul Ricard test the week before.

"It will be good to see how the modifications will be on the race track. The biggest factors at Imola are hard braking and acceleration, because of all the chicanes and the short straights in between them. This also means that performance of traction, braking and braking stability is key for this race.

"To get quick lap times at Imola, you have to really attack the kerbs and because they are so high, probably more so than at most tracks, we have to keep the car quite soft so it rides the kerbs well.

"The best place to overtake at Imola would be the Tosa hairpin, both under braking and also exiting, and you also tend to see a lot of cars running wide providing more opportunities."