Season 8 Race2 Silverston Incident Report

[Nicolas Rouge]

Back to the business after my eyes surgery (but I'm still having vision disorders ), I'm happy to see that Anthony changed his mind. I think we all had some bad luck at some point during the last seasons, and it's always a loss when somebody decide to leave the championship because of that.

For my part, I always try to train as much as I can (from 2 to 5 hours per gp), but I only concentrate on race setup because qual is boring me (and really usefull for 1 lap during the gp in fact). I haven't got the talent of the other drivers than can allow themselves to train less than 1 hour, and I'm really p****d of when my race is ending too early, and if that's something that is repeating for 2 races, then I understand completely Anthony's reaction.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

For my part, I always try to train as much as I can (from 2 to 5 hours per gp), but I only concentrate on race setup because qual is boring me (and really usefull for 1 lap during the gp in fact). I haven't got the talent of the other drivers than can allow themselves to train less than 1 hour,

I am very much like you Nicolas, I could not rely on the practice session alone. I take a long time (re)learning the tracks and all their secrets. So I do not regard myself as very talented I had practiced about 2 hours for Nurburgring and an old Aussie without preperations kicked my ass

 

[Peter Marshall]

I had practiced about 2 hours for Nurburgring and an old Aussie without preperations kicked my ass

I thought it was a Scotsman J

 

[Anthony Ishak]

the last race proved to me that i do not have that super gift " the one that Peter got at least " to get a perfect car ready for race in such a short time during the practice session, this session alone is not enough for me to get my mind switched on & ready for race even when i am already full prepared!!! I did not know what to expect from the car as the race progressed and when i was struggling with the grip as the tires start to wear out i lost the confidence in the car to keep pushing and start slowing even more as i was afraid to spin the car or something ...

i normally need a minimum of 2 to 3 full stints to understand the car behaviour from the start of the stint until the last lap of the same stint , the first stint to take notes, the second stint to try the things i already adjusted and the third to confirm the final setup. normally the last 5- 6 laps of the stint is the zone where the lap time will be dropped the most , and right when i get to this zone i can clearly feel how exactly the car is behaving, / understeering / oversteering / need more or less wings/ etc...then i take notes in my mind the things I need to adjust to fine-tune the race setup to find that extra grip or better handling that gives me the advantage to close the gap to the guy ahead of me...as example, if a stint of 16 laps and on lap 10 i feel the car start to oversteer more than normal on the exit of a certain turn which force me go slower on the throttle on that exit , i make a note in my mind to add another click to the rear wing and to reduce the rear springs a bit or increase the front anti roll bar a bit or something to balance the car to go more towards understeer next time i get there , you won’t notice much those tiny changes you have done when the tires are still fresh but when you get to lap 10 or so the changes you have done will be much more noticeable, so I try again another stint and on lap 10 onwards i check on that particular turn to see if the car handles better and if I push would the car be losing the rear or it will understeer a bit to correct the spin.!.

that is what I normally do if I had the time to prepare for the race and then if i was lucky enough to get it done in the race ..

 

[Peter Marshall]

We've been doing many of these tracks for some years now, so a lot less talent and much more memories...

Please don't think i don't care about preparation. My idea was to encorouge Anthony to turn up, race and feel welcomed even if under prepared. And I am glad he did.

My preparation is very track dependant. I will likely put in many laps for Monaco just like anyone else who wants to see the flag. I don't think any of us really need to practice for Monza though - especially thanks to Anthony's initiative to post competitive car setups.

Re my practice session: First laps out at Nurburgring were in the 1'35s - 36's. I compared that to Jim's 29 and thought O'dear [OK, I used a slightly different word combination]. By the end of my third run I was in the 31 - 30's [with fuel] and thought, no it's gonna be fine.

I am having fun, I am well motivated on the day. I will work hard not to wreck anyone [else] or myself for the rest of this season and beyond. I'm not lacking in enthusiasm and I have a lot of respect for you all.