AT&T Williams F1

The French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours brings the team back to a more typical type of race circuit, with a mixture of slow, medium and high speed corners. It is normal for these types of tracks to require an aerodynamically efficient car, but it is also important that the car is well balanced. This is a term that is used frequently with respect to the handling of the car, more often than not when the car is not well balanced.

Balance refers to the comparison of grip (a combination of aerodynamic and mechanical grip) experienced at the front and rear wheels. The driver feels the balance most clearly when the car is cornering, and whether the car is under- or over-rotating through it, which is typically known as either understeer or oversteer. A car that is not well balanced through a corner will result in the car being driven below its potential cornering speed and so the ultimate lap time will be lost.

The aerodynamic balance of the car is heavily influenced by the car's attitude - in particular: the front and rear ride heights, the yaw angle of the car and the amount the front wheels are steered. The attitude of the car will be different from corner to corner around the circuit, with the variation being greatest between high speed and slow speed corners. Therefore, it is possible that the aerodynamic balance of the car can be quite different between different types of corners. On a circuit with a mixture of slow, medium and high speed corners, such as Magny-Cours, this puts a greater emphasis on a car with very little aerodynamic balance change, or at least one that has a consistent balance across all type of corners.

For this weekend, there are a few aerodynamic development items that will be introduced - specifically on the front wing, bodywork and the floor regions of the car. These items have been predominantly developed to increase the overall aerodynamic efficiency of the car, but are not specific to the Magny-Cours circuit.  We are also hopeful that the balance of the car will have been improved, which will translate to improved handling of the characteristics for this type of track.