McLaren may have got it wrong when designing its bespoke rear wing for Monza, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
“If you walk up and down the pitlane you’ll see that some cars have a wing on that looks like the thickness of two sheets of paper,” said the team’s Jenson Button.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that McLaren’s is visibly the biggest of them all.

Last year, Button surprised the paddock by performing strongly with a notably big rear wing at Monza, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton – and the rest of the field – wore traditionally-thin Monza wings.

Button’s decision paid off in 2010 because of the drag-shedding F-duct, which could be deployed anywhere around the circuit, with the big wing producing more grip in the corners.

But in 2011, the similar ‘DRS’ system for the rear wing can be used in the race only in its designated zones.

Another difference with 2010 is that with the exhaust-blown diffusers now producing much of the rear downforce, running more wing at Monza is not as beneficial in terms of the top-speed trade-off.

Williams’ technical director Sam Michael, however, is not sure.

“On Friday we will test a Monza wing against a Spa wing,” he revealed. “My gut feeling is that more downforce may be the better solution.”

Rather than bracing to lose a customer, Cosworth says it is ready to supply engines to a fifth formula one team next year.

The British marque’s business director Mark Gallagher played down recent reports that the currently Cosworth-powered Williams or Lotus could be moving to switch to Renault.

Renault has said it is willing to add to its customer engine roster for 2011, but Gallagher told Reuters that he thinks Williams, Lotus, Virgin and HRT are going nowhere.

“The obvious solution is actually the thirteenth team that is coming into formula one,” he said.

“My gut feeling is that it is probably a Cosworth/Renault competition to supply (that) team,” added Gallagher.

Even if the four Cosworth-powered teams all stay put, Gallagher said the Northampton-based supplier has the capacity to supply a fifth team.

“It certainly wouldn’t be a problem to step up to the mark again and do it for next season,” he said.

(GMM)

David Coulthard has an alternative theory after Michael Schumacher seemed to have taken a major step forward in Friday practice.

In the wake of his lacklustre showing in Shanghai three weeks ago, the seven time world champion faced a barrage of criticism, while at the same time Mercedes worked on significantly updating the W01 car.

Schumacher was then comfortably faster than teammate Nico Rosberg in both 90-minute sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya, outpaced only by the dominant Red Bulls.

“There are two possible reasons,” retired Scottish veteran Coulthard, now a commentator for British TV and a driver in the DTM series, said in a column for the Daily Telegraph.

“Either he is finding the new setup more to his liking or the team were running him extra light to take some pressure off and make him look faster than he is,” he added.

“I guess we will find out in qualifying today, but as I’ve consistently said, my gut feeling is that Michael can come good,” said Coulthard.

When asked in Spain if Schumacher and Rosberg – who insisted he had simply got his car setup wrong – could be fairly compared after Friday, Ross Brawn admitted the pair had run “different programmes” in practice.