Paul Hembery: “Korea presents the supersoft tyres in particular with their toughest test of the year, but with the championship decided this is a valuable opportunity for us to try out some alternative nominations in order to have some more information for next year. Because of the abrasive surface and comparatively high lateral loading in Korea we might expect a higher number of pit stops than usual from the drivers basing their strategies around the softer tyre. Some may prefer to concentrate on the harder compound, so it’s going to be another very interesting race tactically. But all this speculation could come to nothing if it rains, which is quite possible too. Whatever happens, historically it will be an important event for us as it’s the first race we come to with a Pirelli-equipped Formula One world champion for more than 50 years.”
Heikki Kovalainen (Team Lotus): “Korea is an interesting track in that you go from one sector with large run off areas to another that’s more like a street circuit, with close walls and no margin for error. Maximising outright pace is pretty critical as the long straight out of Turn 2 with the very tight right at the end is a good chance to overtake, but then the rest of the lap is a mix of low and medium speed corners so we have to find a balance that gives us the best of both worlds. One obvious difference to a lot of the circuits is the fact that it’s anti-clockwise. That doesn’t really affect the set-up but it can have an effect on some of the drivers. We all train our neck muscles to cope with the demands of racing, but as most of the tracks run clockwise we have to work a bit harder on making sure we don’t have any problems, like you can do through the triple left-hander of Turn 8. From a tyre perspective I think it might be similar to Japan. We have the softs and the supersofts and as degradation is high in Korea, particularly from Turn 10 to Turn 17, I think strategy and tyre wear will play a critical role. Last year it was obviously soaking so we didn’t see the tyre strategies play out, but I think if it’s dry this year we will, and it’ll make for a fascinating race.”
Discussion about this post