To stop or not to stop? Did Renault make the right decision?

　　停站还是不停站？雷诺的决定是否正确？

　　Following Michael Schumacher’s victory over Fernando Alonso at Imola on Sunday, the paddock was alive with speculation about ‘tactical errors', bluff and counter bluff, and respective fuel loads. Did Renault throw away a race win with a tactical mistake? Or did they do everything they could to try and steal the win from Ferrari? Clearly, Renault believe the latter - as engineering director Pat Symonds explained…

　　随着迈克尔－舒马赫在伊莫拉的周日战胜费尔南多－阿隆索，围场中出现了关于‘战术’失误、斗智和反斗智，以及他们各自油量负载的讨论。雷诺是否由于战术失误而丢掉了比赛胜利？或者他们只是在想尽办法试图从法拉利那里窃取胜利？显然，雷诺比较认同后者，正如工程总监帕特－西蒙兹所解释的.......

　　Q: Pat, let's start at the beginning. How did the first stint go for Alonso?

　　Pat Symonds: To be honest, the first stint unfolded pretty much as we expected. We saw Michael pulling away from everybody, as we had predicted - although perhaps not as fast as we had thought. It also became clear during that stint, that the tyre degradation was very low. That meant we knew the longer first stint we had planned, would allow us to pull back some time on Michael - as, indeed, proved to be the case [Alonso was 13.563s behind when Schumacher stopped, and 11.272s behind after Alonso had stopped].

　　问：帕特你好，让我们从头开始。比赛第一阶段对于阿隆索来说进行得怎样？

　　帕特－西蒙兹：说实话，第一阶段没有完全我们的计划进行。正如我们所预计的，我们看到迈克尔将所有人甩在了后面，也许尽管没有我们想象中那么快。也是在那个阶段，轮胎磨损显然非常的慢。所以我们知道第一阶段正如我们所计划的会更长一些，使得我们可以缩小与迈克尔的时间差距，当然这种情况确实也出现了（当舒马赫停站的时候，阿隆索落后13.563秒，在阿隆索完成停站后，差距变化11.272秒）。

　　Q: And what about the second stint of the race?

　　PS: That was when things became very surprising. Michael's tyre degradation was suddenly dreadful - and it very soon became clear that we were significantly quicker than him, and running much faster. It took Fernando less than ten laps to close the gap and start pressuring him.

　　问：那比赛的第二阶段呢？

　　西蒙兹：这一阶段情况让人非常惊讶。迈克尔的轮胎突然急剧磨损，很快情况就明朗了，我们的速度比他快了很多，而且非常快。费尔南多花了不到10圈的距离就缩小了差距，并开始向他施加压力。

　　Q: Presumably, then, the logical thing to do would have been to run longer again and pass him at the stops?

　　PS: Yes, that would - but by the middle of the second stint, we are already locked into our strategy. We make the decision about our second stop during the first stint, and at that point, we had no idea that Michael would have the problems he did. So we followed our optimum pattern, which was to do a shorter second stint in order to improve our track position relative to Michael. Unlike the television predictions, which had us stopping on lap 47 I believe, our measurements said we would stop only a lap later than Michael in all likelihood, or possibly even on the same lap.

　　问：那么大概比较合理的做法应该是让他跑更长的时间，然后在停站的时候超过他？

　　西蒙兹：是的，本来应该是这样。但在第二阶段的中间，我们已经锁定了战术策略。在比赛第一阶段期间，我们制定了第二次停站的决定，那时我们不知道迈克尔会碰到那种问题。所以执行最佳的方案，即缩短比赛的第二阶段，提升相对于迈克尔的赛道位置。当时电视转播预测我们将在第47圈停站，其实不是的。根据我们的计算，我们很可能要比迈克尔晚一圈停站，或者甚至会和他在同一圈停站。

　　Q: In reality, though, you stopped Fernando early…

　　PS: Yes, exactly. Fernando pitted two laps earlier than we had planned. Had we been certain of going significantly further than Michael in the second stint then obviously, the option would have been to stay out - and it would have probably worked. But we didn't have that extra fuel, and we would probably have run only a lap longer than Michael. During that lap, he would have been on new tyres and we saw in qualifying that they were particularly strong on those opening ‘golden' laps. So we didn't think it would work for us and obviously, simply following Michael in and out of the pits was not an option. So we got creative, and took the only other option available to try and get the win - to bring Fernando in early.

　　问：不过实际上，你让费尔南多提前进站了....

　　西蒙兹：是的，非常对。费尔南多比计划中提前了两圈停站。如果我们确定要在第二阶段比迈克尔坚持更长的时间，那么显然就应该一直留在外面，这也许会奏效。但我们没有更多的油量，也许只能比迈克尔多坚持一圈。而在那个单圈中，他可能就会换上了新轮胎，而且我们在排位赛中就已经看到了，他们（法拉利）在开始阶段那几个‘黄金单圈’中非常强大。所以我们认为这（原计划）对我们不会有效，而显然简单地跟着迈克尔进站、出站也不是一个办法。所以我们必须创新，实施另外一个唯一可行的方案，争取获胜，即让费尔南多提前进站。

　　Q: Was it easy to know which lap to stop on?

　　PS: We had to judge it so that we didn't stop too early, and drop into Massa's clutches. So as soon as we saw we were clear, we discussed it with Fernando and gave him a choice: if he was able to overtake Michael, he should stay out; and if not, then he should pit. He pitted, we went for it, and we missed out by just 0.7s when the stops cycled through.

　　问：要确定在哪一个单圈进站是否容易？

　　西蒙兹：我们必须判断，这样才能避免过早进站，陷入与马萨的纠缠中。于是当我们发现情况不错时，我们同费尔南多进行了讨论，给他一个选择：如果他能够超越迈克尔，那他就应当留在外面，如果不能就应该停站。结果他进站了，我们选择了这个方案，在停站期间仅仅损失了0.7秒钟。

　　Q: So what was the key?

　　PS: The really significant thing was that on the free lap after Fernando pitted, Michael showed he had some performance in reserve. On the lap we pitted, he did a lap of 1:25.7 - where his average speed in the ten previous laps, was 1:27.4. The lap-times during the second stint had not suggested he had that performance in reserve.

　　问：那么其中的关键是什么？

　　西蒙兹：最最关键的是在费尔南多停站后的那个自由单圈里，迈克尔发挥出了一些保留的实力。在我们停站的那个单圈里，他做出了1:25.7的成绩，而他在之前的10个单圈中的平均速度仅为1:27.4。 而在比赛第二阶段中的单圈计时并没有显示他曾保留了实力。

　　Q: Is it frustrating to get beaten by such a fine margin?

　　PS: I think that's what motor racing is all about to be honest. Hats off to Michael and Ferrari, because they pulled a blinder! From our point of view, we could have run our planned strategy and still finished second. But it would have been an unsatisfying second place, because there would have been a ‘what if' factor because we hadn't explored every option available to us. As it was, we tried everything we could - and it didn't come off because we saw two cars with very equal levels of performance, battling for the win.* As I said yesterday, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ But in this case, nothing lost either.

　　问：以如此微弱的差距而败北是否会（让你们）感到很遗憾？

　　西蒙兹：说实话，我认为这就是f1.sports.sohu.com/' target=_blank>赛车比赛。向迈克尔和法拉利致敬，因为他们使了个障眼法！但在我们看来，我们本来可以按照计划中的策略进行，但仍然还是会拿到亚军。不过那仍将是一个让人不满意的亚军，因为还存在‘如果可能’的因素在里面，因为我们没有尝试每一种对我们可行的方案、现在我们尝试了所有能做的事情，但没有成功，我们已经看到了，这两部争夺冠军的赛车性能几乎不相上下。正如我昨天所说过的，‘不敢冒险就没有收获’。但在这种情况下，我们什么也没有失去。

　　*Note: the ‘ideal' laps for each driver - produced by adding together their best three sectors, and which indicates the ‘ultimate' potential performance of the cars - were 1:24.524 for Alonso and 1:24.502 for Schumacher.

　　注：每个车手的‘理想单圈’是将他们三个计时段中的最好计时相加而得出的，它表明了赛车的‘最终’潜在实力：阿隆索的为1:24.524，而舒马赫的为1:24.502。

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