Mercedes Benz

The ferociously-fast Monza track has always been a gamble for finding the best balance between drag and downforce to ensure a smooth, unbeatable result. During the first day on the Italian circuit, all the F1 teams involved in the 2011 season awarded much of the set-up time to installing and understanding certain packages designed to get the most out of the single-seaters. VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES engineers and drivers have also been very busy during whole Friday and got an accurate reading of the performance the two MP4-26 cars can achieve. Lewis Hamilton was particularly content with the wing settings prepped for the free practice sessions, which paved the way to the strong results he brought for his team: P1 after FP1 and P2 after FP2. Jenson Button was slightly slower than his colleague and reported some errors that need to be fixed in order to have a strong, close to ideal aerodynamic package, which also must be evenly mated with a fully functional DRS in order to ensure competitive values for the drag and downforce levels.

Check out more photos captured yesterday at Monza after the break!