Almost every racing driver would love to be in George Russell’s position. A drive with the most successful team in the GP3 Series? Check. Young driver programme with the reigning Formula 1 champions? Check. But how does it feel to be in the young Briton’s shoes? “It definitely gives me a lot of self-confidence, and makes me feel appreciated for my career and the job I’ve done up to that point.” But getting the deal is only part of the job: now the hard work begins. “Yeah, exactly,” Russell confirms as we sit down in the back of the ART truck in the Barcelona paddock, with the young Mercedes driver about to make his GP3 Series debut. “They’re obviously invested in me, and they need me to be successful to take me to the next stage of my career, so from their side they want me to just focus on GP3, and to do my job here.” So for all of those drivers out there hoping to replicate his success, how do you go about building a relationship with a company like Mercedes? “It all kind of started from racing in Formula 3 really,” Russell begins, “and my first relationship with Mercedes was at the end of 2014, where I did a test for them in F3. I consequentially raced with Volkswagen in my first year until at the end of 2015, when they approached me to be a Mercedes Formula 3 driver, which is a pretty common thing: they usually have 1 or 2 a year. “I then moved to Hitech in 2016 with a Mercedes engine, and they sent me an email asking me if I would like to do a simulator test on their sim. I had a good couple of days of assessment, they thought I was pretty good, and then I had more of a sim role throughout the 2016 season with them before they then decided at the end of the year to make me a Mercedes F1 junior driver. “So a lot of it was basically off the back of my being with a Mercedes engine in F3, to my role with the simulator and doing a good job there and with my results, and then getting the phone call really.” What did it mean to get that call? “I wouldn’t say it was a massive relief, but I had been working so hard on my career to let’s say reach Formula 1, and as you go up the ladder you kind of realise it’s not as easy as you think it is: you think if I win I’ll get there, but it’s sometimes not as easy as that at all. “Throughout the 2015 season I kind of set my sights on DTM: I had a small link with BMW at that time with the DTM scene, and that became my focus. I just thought Formula 1 is out of reach now, and that’s where I’m focusing towards. And suddenly the opportunity came, they offered me the deal to be a Mercedes young driver in Formula 3, and then they said there’s an opportunity of the F1 simulator stuff depending on how you get on. “I was quite confident at this point, and I thought I need to take a risk here: if I turned it down and committed to the DTM route then the Mercedes thing was off, and I thought I have to take a risk, do a good job, and hopefully they’ll decide that I’m capable enough to be a part of their F1 driver programme.” Racing careers turn on decisions like that, and so far it seems to be working out well. What has been the most eye opening part of working so closely with an F1 team? “I do a lot of sim work for them, and I’m learning an awful lot just doing that work: how to develop a car, the amount of work they do, and just how a Formula 1 team works. “Obviously the guys at ART do a wonderful job, but in Formula 1 they just have so much extra data and resources they can use, and just to see how they use that is mind blowing really. To get an insight into this has made me take a bit of information from there, which has helped a lot on the GP3 side of things. “It’s definitely been a benefit: their sim is so good, so realistic, that it’s almost like doing laps and laps around a real circuit! If I feel like I need to go to Silverstone, for example, and do a couple of laps at the end of the day because I’m not too comfortable with Silverstone, then I ask if they mind doing a couple of laps, they click a button on the computer, and there we are: we’ve gone from Barcelona to Silverstone in five minutes! From that side of things it’s great.” And away from the circuit do they give you any help? “Yes, what they’ve done is give me a Hintsa Performance coach: a lot of the F1 guys, I think 12 of them, use Hintsa Performance, so I’ve been really lucky because I’ve been given a guy who has moved over to the UK to be my full time trainer, and that’s been a massive help. “Obviously I was already doing full time training before, and eating well, but since having him here alongside me everything has just gone to another level really. At the stage I’m at in my career now that’s been really important: there’s such a fine line with everything. And I know that at any time I could potentially get a call saying ‘we need you to test here’, and I’ve got to be ready for that, and for the next stage of my career.” But the focus has to be on the here and now, and Russell knows that, no matter how tempting it would be to hang around the F1 scene, his real priority has to be on his current job. “They’ve given me a pass for the [F1] paddock, which is great and I can go over there anytime I want, but I’ve decided to myself that I’m here to do one job: my main job is GP3, my Mercedes role is secondary, and they’re completely on board with that. “From their side they need me to go out and be successful this year, and then the next stage of my career will follow from that. But for now my number 1 priority is GP3, and my Mercedes role is secondary.” He got a double points haul on his debut, and the recent test at the Hungaroring demonstrated that the hard work is starting to pay off when he topped the first day: next stop Austria, to turn the testing results into racing success. Watch this space.
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Julien Falchero has a new way to work, with a little help from a friend Most people think that the only thing you need to be a successful racer is speed. If a kid has speed, the saying goes, then the rest can be learnt: you can’t learn speed. We’ve all heard this saying, maybe you’ve even said it. But what if it’s wrong? What is speed isn’t all you need? Julien Falchero came to racing relatively late, compared to his rivals: “it’s the beginning of just my third season in single seaters,” the Frenchman confirms, “and before this I only did 2 years of karting, so I started motorsport quite late at 16 years old.” And he’s fast – even a cursory look at his testing results would confirm that – but he knew there was more to being a successful driver than just speed. A lot of drivers hire driver coaches, older drivers who have been through the wringer and come out the other side, and they are a great source of information and advice on how to push their career forward. There are plenty of current drivers in other championships who make a decent living on the side helping their charges to improve: it’s a well-established part of the industry. But what Falchero did was different. Instead of hiring a twenty something hot shoe, he decided to work with a 70 year old Frenchman who has raced for 8 Formula 1 teams. He decided to work with Jean-Pierre Jarier. How on earth did that come about? “Well, he’s a friend of mine!” Falchero laughs. “I’ve known him for a while, and last year I drove at Monaco and I told him that I needed somewhere for my sponsors to go to see the race: he helped with that, and we met again there and talked.” Something about the chat inspired the French legend. “He decided to look more at the end of my season last year, and then this season he said he wanted to be with me, and to help me for the season in GP3.” So not a case of choosing a driver coach: Jarier chose him. But what does the elder man bring to the table? “Oh, a lot of things. He gives me a lot of tools: how I have to be as a driver, changing my view from inside the car and outside of the car, some special tools that only an F1 driver knows. “I have some other people [who help] for the mental side, and for the physical coaching. But he helps me a lot with communications, for example, and I need him for on the track because I don’t have a lot of experience. So he helps me a lot to be more aggressive, some tools that are very important and that I need on the track, so it’s really important.” It’s likely that some of Jarier’s team members from his F1 days would raise a wry smile at that, considering how famously sharp-tongued the Frenchman could be when he felt that the car wasn’t right (this is the man who was fired after an argument with his ATS team manager in Monaco, and was re-hired in Germany before walking out once again, after all). But perhaps he’s mellowed over the years: certainly Falchero thinks he has been instrumental in improving communication within the Campos truck. “I think my view outside of the car, when I discuss with the engineers, is much better,” he confirms. “Before when I was talking with my engineer I was starting to say some bad things or I wasn’t using the right words, and he helped me with that: he explained to me that it was really important to have a good relationship with my engineer, and that I needed to be really clear with him, because sometimes you don’t have a lot of time and you need to take a very fast decision. “He helps me a lot, and I think it’s very important because if you look, for example, at GP3 in free practice we have one run, we go to the box, we have another run, and when we go to the box I need to explain very fast, but very clearly, to my engineer what’s happened on the car. Before I was thinking it’s not very important, but he has helped me to see better, to give me the words to use, very clear words, and not to talk about stupid things that my engineer is not interested in!” But how does it work, in practice? Some teams take a dim view on having another driver sitting in, listening to all of their hard-earned information, but Jarier is not the usual ex-driver. And team boss Adrian Campos having a similar career probably doesn’t hurt: “yeah, when I said to Adrian that I would work with Jean-Pierre Jarier he was very happy, because it’s not all the time that you have an ex-Formula 1 driver with you! “We work very close together, and with the team also: the team is very happy that he’s here because he knows a lot of things from Formula 1, and all the time it’s a good advantage for the team. But sometimes he knows that he needs to step back, and at other points he knows that he can help. We work together, and it’s a good team.” And it doesn’t hurt on the sponsorship side either: “Yeah, this is why he helps me so much on communication. I was not very famous before coming to GP3, but now with him my communications are much better in France, it’s better for the sponsors and everything. We are very close, and am really happy about this.” So Jarier helps with communications within the team, when time is tight, and also out of the car when he needs to sell his results to the public, and to the sponsors who allow him to be here racing. But that’s not the best part of working so closely with a legend (and driving for another one). No, the best part is when you leave the track with his mentor and his boss: “Yeah! It’s very interesting when you’re at dinner, and they tell you all the old stories from Formula 1: it’s really amazing!” If life is a lesson, then Julien Falchero is clearly enjoying every part of his education. 6/1/2017 0 Comments Taking it to the streetsAll eyes were on Charles Leclerc as the grid arrived to start their weekend in the glorious sunshine bearing down on the Principality of Monaco: coming into Round 3 as the championship leader he had the additional benefit of racing around the streets he has lived on all his life, and if he hadn’t ever raced there previously, no one believed it wouldn’t be another advantage for him to use. He led the championship at the end of the weekend too, but not in the manner he was hoping for when he arrived in the paddock on Wednesday. And sure enough, the Monegasque driver, resplendent in a new helmet and overalls for the event, led the way in free practice: with qualifying just a few hours away everyone drove within themselves to save their teams the heartache of rebuilding a car in an impossibly short period, but Leclerc belied the fact that he’d never driven on the circuit in a race car before by grabbing the top spot by a tenth over Sergio Canamasas and Oliver Rowland. The qualifying session was very different to usual, but the end result was the same as every other one this year: Leclerc continued to dominate, grabbing his third pole position in a row. Given the tight, twisty nature of the circuit traffic can have a big impact on a lap around Monaco, and as such the grid was split into 2 groups (odd and even numbered cars), with Leclerc’s Group A out first. The local driver topped his group ahead of Rowland, with a bit of help when Nobuharu Matsushita found the wall late in the session: Alexander Albon topped Group B but was 0.01s short, handing the honours to Leclerc. “It feels really, really amazing!” Leclerc laughed afterwards. “It was quite scary to be in the first group and then watch Alex and the others in the second group as the times were going down, but by a hundredth I think we made it. I’m very, very happy, and I definitely need to thank the team for a great car. It’s good to start from pole in my home town!” It looked like a familiar pattern was being formed, but Monaco is nothing if not surprising. Leclerc held off Albon and Rowland at the start, with Matsushita blasting past Artem Markelov into Ste Devote to slide in behind them, and with all of them on the soft compound it looked like the shape of the race was set at a circuit on which it is notoriously difficult to overtake. But an early safety car saw the super soft starters, led by Luca Ghiotto get a free stop, with Albon taking the risk to jump in too and hope that his options would last the race and give him a track position advantage, emerging as he did just ahead of the Italian. The race went live on lap 12, and Leclerc easily held off Rowland into Ste Devote before building as big a gap as possible back to Albon and Ghiotto, setting a string of fast laps in the process. But the race advantage turned once again when Louis Delétraz and Robert Visiou came together at Mirabeau, prompting another safety car period and turning the fight for the lead around again: Leclerc was called in just before the safety car emerged; Rowland, Matsushita and Markelov just after it (with the latter jumped up a spot in the stop) and coming out ahead of the local driver, who had his race go from bad to worse when a loose nut meant he had to pit again next time through, this time to retire. Leclerc was gutted to lose what had looked like his race, Rowland was overjoyed to overturn his Monaco hoodoo for his first F2 win, while Markelov and Matsushita were delighted to return to the podium after their wins in the principality last year. “It’s been a while coming!” Rowland laughed in the press conference after soaking up the applause from the crowd on the walk back to the paddock. “Obviously it feels great, and to be honest I didn’t expect it so much after the start because it was quite processional, but the safety cars can cause anything around here! “To win here is mega special: every year I’ve been here I’ve been slightly unlucky, whether it was last year in GP2 or previously, and even in karting I seized here with 2 laps to go when I was leading! It’s never been that kind but I think today repaid me, but right now I can’t explain how good it feels to win this…” If the feature race was complicated and dramatic, then the sprint race was blissfully simple, at least for race winner Nyck De Vries. The Dutchman started on the front row, just behind teammate Johnny Cecotto, and if the drivers were looking forward to the race their team were extremely anxious that they don’t do anything to jeopardise what could be the team’s best result in its history, and at the most famous circuit of them all. They needn’t have worried: when the lights went out Cecotto made a good start but De Vries made a better one, running around the outside if the Venezuelan but leaving him plenty of room to follow through at Ste Devote before sprinting away for what appeared to be a processional victory, while behind him Cecotto had his mirrors full of the fast charging pair Gustav Malja and Luca Ghiotto: the latter two were clearly faster, but Cecotto used all of his experience to deny the pair as he rounded out a Rapax 1-2 on the podium, with Malja alongside them. But if it looked simple, De Vries was keen to dissuade everyone of that view: “Well, no! Firstly I had to stay out of the walls, which is a challenge here! It’s been an unbelievable weekend: we started quite well but we had some difficulties after qualifying, with two grid penalties. I was back to P14 which was tough to take, but you never know in Monaco, and we kept fighting. Surely everything went our way yesterday to get back in the top eight, which was crucial to have a shot today. “From the front row, we took the opportunity: I had a very good start! It was a very long race to the end. I lost concentration a little bit at some point and hit the apex at Turn 12: at that stage I told myself to keep it together! I’m extremely happy and thankful to the team and everyone involved.” The podium afterwards was the embodiment of the old line about the Olympics that the gold medallist is more relieved than happy, the silver medallist is the most disappointed and the bronze medallist is the happiest of everyone because he is just pleased to be up there. De Vries was happy to win, obviously, but looked more relieved that he had brought home the result and had something to start building on, while Cecotto showed just how unhappy a driver can be when beaten by his teammate. But Malja was delighted to be on the podium, and happy to watch all the attention going elsewhere: “It is getting better and better, especially in the last races. Obviously we had a poor start of the season in Bahrain, but we found some good pace since then, and for sure we will get even better.” 5/19/2017 0 Comments Sean Gelael: “They’re the Future”There’s no question that drivers have a pretty good life: with families and sponsors who support them emotionally and financially, and a race team to take care of their organisational issues, leaving them to concentrate on training between races, with their time at the track mostly spoken for between debriefs, media commitments, training and time in the car. But what if you know that you’re in a very privileged position and want to give something back, to help others to get to where you are? Sean Gelael is in the extremely lucky position of being able to race in Formula 2 representing his home country of Indonesia, where he has thousands of fans looking for anything to do with their idol, and he could easily spend what little spare time he has on relaxing or doing something to get away from the stress of a busy race calendar. Instead, the likeable Indonesian went home between the first two rounds, detouring from Bahrain to Barcelona via Jakarta to present what he hopes will be the first of many lectures for his fellow countrymen who might be interested in getting into the technical side of the sport he loves, but may not know how. “We always wanted to let the people understand about motorsport,” he started when I asked him what he’d been up to between races, “because we saw how much Formula 1 impacts Indonesia, and it was just the right time after the F1 test. It was actually with the biggest university there (University of Indonesia), and they were keen to do it. First of all it was going to be just a small lecture in a classroom, but the Dean quite liked it and wanted to make it something really big, so we ended up holding it in their auditorium with 800-1000 people. “It’s not just the Faculty of Engineering that was interested, and that was really good: it shows how much they already know, but also it was a good start to educate the others. They’re the future: we want to make motorsport one of the biggest sports in Indo, and it doesn’t only start with drivers but also engineers, mechanics and other roles. Hopefully, because we have such a big market there, the next generation will go into motorsport even more, because they understand it. “ Gelael and race engineer Gaëtan Jego flew over to make the presentation jointly, but the driver wanted it to have more impact than just a dry speech: “Basically it was a lecture, but we don’t want to bore them with the scientific stuff so much: sports and music always blended together, and KFC has a label and so we had artists coming from there. “And basically we did the lecture: Gaëtan did most of the engineering stuff, I did what that relates to as a driver, and because there were also human performance people there we tried to understand what it’s like to go through, and basically what motorsport is really about, because they don’t really know. And after that we had like a mini concert, which was fun!” Speaking with Jego afterwards, the Frenchman was amazed at the enthusiasm from everyone attending, something he had never seen in his student days: “It was incredible how many people wanted to attend, and came to speak with us afterwards. Engineering is a pretty dry subject in Europe, and there’s a well-established path to get to here, but they’ve never had anything like that. “They were so happy that we came all that way to speak to them about it, so keen to learn: I really hope it’s something we can do again, because I really enjoyed it. And the concert was pretty good too!” Gelael is keen to continue, perhaps with a more formalised agenda, although the life of a racing driver doesn’t exactly afford him a lot of time for extracurricular activities like this: “Hopefully the people there were really happy that it happened: we’d love to do more of that in the future, but unfortunately we’re rarely there. Hopefully we can do something in the off season, or in the mid-season break. “It’s not only about the racing drivers and having the infrastructure to go racing, that’s just one bit, but there are people who are really smart, really into motorsport but don’t know where to go, and I think it just paves a good way to understand more and to see what can really happen. And that’s one of the things that we want to do more: they support us a lot, and I think to give something back is just really good.” Of course, as he progresses in his sport he’s only likely to have less spare time, and something else that took up a few precious days off was his first Formula 1 test, with Toro Rosso in Bahrain following the race weekend. A few car issues minimised his early running, but once they were resolved Gelael put in 78 laps, living a dream he’d had since he was a young boy watching his heroes on television. How did it feel to finally get out on track in a Formula 1 car? “It was great! It was a great opportunity to drive an F1 car, so a big thanks to everyone who made it happen: it’s very humbling to have such support from a lot of the Indonesian people, who not only supported me all the way here [in Formula 2] but also at the test. That was very encouraging, and it shows how much support there is for motorsport in Indonesia. “We had some problems in the morning which shifted the schedule a bit, but that’s racing. Everything else went quite smoothly, I was quite happy with that, and I hope the team and I were satisfied with everything: hopefully in Hungary and Abu Dhabi we can do more.” What was the moment like when he put your foot down and felt that power? “I think you kind of expect it, because the preparation beforehand was so good. In F1 there are a lot of steps, or modes, and they took it quite step by step so you don’t feel the impact straight away: it’s more gradual, and it just helps you adapt quicker. “Red Bull has a great sim that helped a lot, and to just be with the team and to understand the procedures and how they like to do it, you pick up small things every day, and in the end you just try to be as ready as you are. Luckily Pertamina Arden are really close to Red Bull, and they helped with just smoothing things along. I think communication is the biggest thing, and because of them everything went smoothly. “It’s booked now for Hungary and Abu Dhabi for the young driver tests [with Toro Rosso]: it’s still a long way away, and the primary target is still to do well in F2: I just have to work hard here, and hopefully this weekend we can show our true pace.” 5/18/2017 0 Comments Fortune smilesCharles Leclerc was the target for the rest of the grid as they arrived to glorious sunshine at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, coming into Round 2 as the championship leader after a strong performance in Bahrain. If the pressure got to him he didn’t show it, beginning as he meant to continue by topping Friday morning’s free practice, a relatively quiet session given the number of miles everyone has put in there, with Alexander Albon and Sergio Sette Camara following close behind the Ferrari Academy driver. Very little changed in the few hours before qualifying, which had the same result: Leclerc had to work for the result, with Luca Ghiotto looking like he’d done enough to secure the top spot just before a red flag with 5 minutes remaining, but the Monegasque pushed hard and secured pole against the odds in the last minute of the session, just ahead of the disappointed Italian and Nyck De Vries. “I didn’t quite get it right in sector one,” Leclerc admitted about his best lap, “but we caught up in sector two and three. I’m really happy to be on pole for the second time because there was a red flag, and then a yellow flag in the last sector, but we arrived just as it turned green so we had a little bit of luck, did the lap when we had to, and I’m really happy to take the points and to start from the front row tomorrow.” And then came the feature race. If those of us watching were unsure which strategy would work best, then the teams were equally confused: a quick walk along the grid showed that the cars were split about 50/50 between prime and option, with the front row among those opting to dispose of their options as quickly as possible. Ghiotto was swallowed up by a fast charging Albon on primes, with Leclerc pitting just before the Thai driver and his colleagues could pass him on track. If it now seemed clear that those starting on the harder compound had an advantage, as long as there were no delays: cue a safety car period to remove Sergio Canamasas’ car on lap 10 and those who had already pitted now had a small advantage, but they would have to work to take advantage of it. After the race Ghiotto admitted that he couldn’t stay with Leclerc’s pace after the restart, worried as he was about tyre life, and the Monegasque driver was slicing through the field as he waited for the reverse stops to come. With Oliver Rowland disposing of Albon he was now the new target for Leclerc, and when the Briton pitted he emerged well behind the PREMA man (and Ghiotto), forcing him to fight his way back up for a well-earned podium behind the pair. “To be honest without the radio it was really hard to know what the others were doing!” Leclerc laughed after the race, “Where we were, if we were losing time to the people in front: I first thought Oliver was going to win easily, and when he made the pitstop he was in the back! It was a really hard race with the safety car, trying to overtake and make my way up without losing time, and most of all without losing the tyres. Towards the end of the race we were obviously slower than Oli, but I have to thank the team for the great car they gave me.” If Leclerc was fortunate that the safety car turned a wrong call into one he could (just) recover, Nobuharu Matsushita’s sprint win owes even more to good fortune, albeit once again by using the work he had already done to take advantage. When the lights went out Nicholas Latifi got off the line like a scalded cat, easily leading his rivals into turn one and escaping into the distance. Behind the likeable Canadian the rest of the field were doing what they could to salvage a result, with the Japanese man leading them from P2 after a rocket start from 5th on the grid. Matsushita also took off, building a solid cushion behind him while concentrating hard on saving his tyres for the end of the race, while behind him Rowland was once again fighting his way through the field in search of another podium. But with 5 laps to go Latifi’s mirror detached, bouncing off his helmet and slightly distracting him into the tricky turn 5, causing him to run deep into the gravel and handing a path through for his two pursuers. “It’s an amazing feeling,” a surprised Matsushita noted later, “my last win was last year in Monaco, so it was quite nice to come back to the podium, and to win! My pace and Nicholas’ was quite similar, so it would not be so easy to overtake I think, but that was quite lucky and I was very happy to be there, and to take this win. Perhaps we should give the last word to Latifi, whose misfortune turned the whole race; sanguine (and very disappointed), he nevertheless knew that he had to keep an eye on the bigger picture: “I’m just very disappointed, I know it was my race to win. There’s a lot of frustration but I can’t do anything about it, it’s done and I can’t take it back, but there are also positives I can take away from it: it was the first reverse grid I got into since the start of last year, it was the first race I could get out in front and lead, and I was managing it fine. It was my race but I got distracted, that’s all: when you’re cruising out the front there’s a lot to think about and I just made a mistake, as simple as that.” Racing drivers are always looking for a competitive edge in their fight to achieve their dream, for help to achieve the points and wins that add up to a tilt at the title. Nyck De Vries has enjoyed close ties to the McLaren-Honda team for seven years of his racing career, and when the fabled F1 team offered him a bigger role within the team by working in their simulator he didn’t have to think about it for long. “My close involvement with work on the simulator started this year,” the Dutchman noted between sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit during the first Formula 2 race weekend of the season. “In the past I wasn’t really involved with the simulator, not even for my own needs, but from this year I will be highly involved with the team where I can to develop the car and assist them if I can, when our weekends don’t clash. “For example, last week I was in Woking all week to do China race reports, so on Friday morning I came in at 2.30am to match the China timings, but unfortunately we didn’t see much running [because of the weather]! But we were there to assist where we could, and McLaren operate the simulator to test just as it would be on track. “It was the first time I’ve done the China race report, and it was quite fascinating to see that everyone arrives so early, everyone arrives in team kit, and the restaurant is open especially for us, and to make lunch and dinner at strange times! It feels like a group of people completely there to support the race team on the other side of the world, and it’s quite nice to be part of that: obviously you have to wake up at crazy times, but you like to be there together and to support the race team wherever we can. “It was a cool experience, and hopefully later in the seasons we’ll run a decent times, and actually get some running in FP1 and FP2!” McLaren aren’t a charity, and naturally the simulator work is set up to improve the F1 car rather to train a driver, no matter how closely he has been linked to the team. But is there an advantage to be found for a young driver? “I think it’s a win win situation,” De Vries asserts, “it’s good for me to be always working in my sport, developing my feedback and my skills, working with engineers and learning about the techniques and the physics behind everything, and to see how much work those teams are putting into the final result, so that is only an advantage. “I think nowadays our generation of drivers have to learn to take something from the simulator, because unfortunately we don’t get as much track time as they used to, so you have to continue to develop and practice your skills, which is done with the simulator. And it’s the first thing I’ll take away from it, because going through driver techniques and compare overlays with other drivers is helping me as much as I can help with the car. It’s a net positive, definitely.” And what about Rapax? What does the team he races with in his day job make of all the work he’s doing with the senior team? “There’s not so much [to tell them] as mainly we’re working on simulator work for McLaren on Formula 1. But, for example, I’ve never been to Baku before, and Monaco will be a very good track to practice, so for sure we sometimes get some time to run those tracks and combine it with their testing and my preparation, which is good. “Rapax have been really supportive, and obviously they think it’s a good thing. Running in the McLaren simulator on various tracks means I don’t need so much time in Italy in a simulator, too. And just to be part of how they run it, how they operate, they really use it as a tool to develop the car, to test and assess parts, they will use it to see if it helps them or not. “After Bahrain I’ll have a couple of days back home and then back to Woking to some data work, so around my F2 season I’ll be mostly occupied with work for them. Every day is different, every day has new things to test, develop and check, and the main objective is to help them to develop the car where we can, and to assist the racing team.” The other advantage of the relationship is that it certainly does no harm to have a Formula 1 team monitoring your progress. But how closely do McLaren follow the young Dutchman? “Clearly by being more closely involved with the team, even though I’ve been there for seven years, you feel that your relationship with everybody, not just an engineer but everyone who is involved, the relationship has grown. “For example, this morning I walked through the paddock and I saw a few people outside, so I went over to say hello and we had, well, not a coffee but a water [laughs] and you feel that, because you are more involved you are more part of them, and they will definitely look at what I’m doing and support me where they can.” And after a double points score in his maiden F2 race weekend De Vries is giving them plenty to support, with more to come. 4/19/2017 0 Comments Bring the heatThe first round of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship opened in Sakhir, Bahrain under unsurprisingly hot and sunny conditions, with Oliver Rowland the first man to put himself on the top of the timesheets for a session: the Briton stopped the clocks at 1:42.221 just nine minutes into a session which saw track temperatures soar to 45 ̊C. But it was a close run thing: Artem Markelov was less than a tenth off his time, with Charles Leclerc just over it. If the practice session would be indicative of the race pace for many on the grid, it would have little bearing on qualifying: the session took place in the markedly cooler conditions of the evening, with Leclerc claiming the bragging rights (and pole) with a stunning single lap time of 1:38.907, betting the house on running on an empty track in the middle of the session with his rivals unable to capitalise following a VSC period at the end for a crash between Gustav Malja and Nabil Jeffri, growing the margin back to PREMA teammate Antonio Fuoco and Nyck De Vries from less than a tenth to almost eight tenths. “That was stressful!” he laughed afterwards. “It was the first session of the year, and we never really know what to expect from the others. To be honest, my team and my engineer have done an amazing job with the set-up of the car. It was amazing. I was not really happy with my first lap, but we were still P1 which was a bit surprising to me. And on the second lap, I managed to put everything together although I lost a little bit in the last corner, but apart from that it was a really good lap. “We are quite happy as well with the strategy: we did one push on the first set to keep the tyres for the race so we know we have better tyres for the race. It looks good!” Back to the desert heat for the feature race, and Markelov was about to claim first blood in the championship: the Russian made a tremendous start from P7 (having been impeded the previous evening in qualifying) to P3 behind Leclerc and Norman Nato, with the Frenchman moving forward early in the race. But Markelov was biding his time and preserving his tyres, so when Nato (lap 15) and Leclerc (lap 16) stopping well before the Russian (lap 17), giving him the opportunity to lean on his tyres harder, with Markelov claiming the top spot with 2 laps to go before winning by almost 8 seconds. “My engineer was always saying to me that I had to be patient and it will come to me at the end, and it was a really nice strategy to win the race! I have to say thanks to my engineer and my team for this great result. I learned a lot from last year about managing the tyres, and that was what really helped me here in this first race: hopefully we can win the next race as well!” Just to increase the drama, Leclerc made a pitstop in the sprint race and still ran home the comfortable winner: PREMA had two options, one with a pitstop and one without, with the Monegasque driver opting for Plan B after picking up early tyre degradation and pushing hard for the lead of the race before stopping for a set of options and pushing hard all the way to the line to reclaim the lead and win what looked like one of the toughest races of his career. “It was an unbelievable race!” he laughed afterwards. “At the start we were still hesitating between Plan A and Plan B, and after some laps I found myself in P2 and decided to call for Plan B and push, because the degradation was already hard at the beginning. So I began to push and I could stay at a good pace for a long time on the prime, we stopped at the right time on the lap we wanted to stop and went on the option, and to be honest until the last 4 laps I didn’t believe we could catch up until Luca and Oliver started to fight for quite a long time, and we managed to win. I have to thank my engineer for a great car and a great strategy: it has been good!” |
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November 2017
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