Hi guys, this thread is meant for taking a closer look at some situations at Istanbul that we can learn from and become wiser and safer
Situation one:
I'll start it of with my crazy practice start. It was beyond poor, it was inexcusable. Luckily it happened in the practice start and not the real one.
This is what happened:
15 minutes or so before qualify started I received a phone call and learned that I had to complete some important work that night (it involved upgrading some tricky programs on a server). I got quite stressed and knew that time would be terribly short if I participated in the race.
I started a few processes on my 4th(!) screen and did some work until it was time for practice start. I loaded my setup and went onto the grid maybe 1 minute before the count down ended. Waiting for cars to join the grid my mind drifted back to the work, but when everybody was on the grid and the race started I was focused again (I thought).
I got an ok start and I easily passed the car ahead who had a terrible start. Moments later I could make a relatively safe move on Vale's left. I did so and remember thinking; this is boarderline of what is safe. At that moment I realised I had forgotten what track I was on, thus what t1 looked like and when to brake! I had just started the race focusing only on getting off the line and manouvering safely down the straight. Suddenly the cars around me were slowing down and I knew I had messed up BIG TIME.
What went wrong here is simply that I was not focused in the minutes leading up to race start. The thought of t1 never entered my mind, I had not focused on what was comming.
It was a very strange incident, but in a race it would be beyond unacceptable. From now on I know that staying focused the last minutes before race start is a must.
Situation one:
I'll start it of with my crazy practice start. It was beyond poor, it was inexcusable. Luckily it happened in the practice start and not the real one.
This is what happened:
15 minutes or so before qualify started I received a phone call and learned that I had to complete some important work that night (it involved upgrading some tricky programs on a server). I got quite stressed and knew that time would be terribly short if I participated in the race.
I started a few processes on my 4th(!) screen and did some work until it was time for practice start. I loaded my setup and went onto the grid maybe 1 minute before the count down ended. Waiting for cars to join the grid my mind drifted back to the work, but when everybody was on the grid and the race started I was focused again (I thought).
I got an ok start and I easily passed the car ahead who had a terrible start. Moments later I could make a relatively safe move on Vale's left. I did so and remember thinking; this is boarderline of what is safe. At that moment I realised I had forgotten what track I was on, thus what t1 looked like and when to brake! I had just started the race focusing only on getting off the line and manouvering safely down the straight. Suddenly the cars around me were slowing down and I knew I had messed up BIG TIME.
What went wrong here is simply that I was not focused in the minutes leading up to race start. The thought of t1 never entered my mind, I had not focused on what was comming.
It was a very strange incident, but in a race it would be beyond unacceptable. From now on I know that staying focused the last minutes before race start is a must.