Day 1 - pit stop practice
Nick and Vitaly got behind the wheel of the R31
today in Barcelona. Despite a problem with the
KERS, which took most of the day to solve and
prevented the team from completing its scheduled
programme, both drivers managed some useful pit
stops practice.
What we learned today:
- The team got up to speed with a new
traffic light system for use in pit stops.
This has been developed over the last year
and the plan is to use it at the first race.
Nick: “I was in the car for just an hour this
morning to do some pit stop practice. It was a
bit damp to begin with, so we started on the wet
tyres and I got my first feel for them. I didn’t
do a proper run, just one timed lap and then
came in and out for pit stops. It was the first
time I have used the new traffic light system
and it worked okay, but we found some small
things to improve for next time.”
Vitaly: “A difficult day for us because we lost
a lot of time finding the problem with the KERS,
but at least I got out for the final 40 minutes
so that we could do the practice pit stops with
our new lighting system. Because we didn’t
manage to do much running today, the team will
give me some more time in the car tomorrow
morning before Nick takes over.”
Alan Permane’s technical programme notes
- Our day was blighted by a KERS problem,
which was quite difficult to understand.
However, we eventually solved the issue and,
as a result, we have learned quite a lot.
We’re confident we won’t face these problems
again.
- On the positive side, we did complete
our pit stop practice with Nick, Vitaly and
all the mechanics from the race team.
Day 2 - clocking up the miles
It was a more productive day at the track as
Vitaly drove the R31 this morning, before Nick
took over driving duties in the afternoon.
What we learned today:
- The R31 was fitted with some new parts
to the water system, which successfully
resolved the problems the team experienced
in Jerez.
- The team logged some useful data from
its suspension set-up programme in the
afternoon, evaluating changes to the front
and rear systems.
Vitaly: “After losing the track time
yesterday, it was nice to be back in the car
this morning and we completed quite a lot of
laps. We found a lot of new things and worked on
the general set-up, as well as understanding how
the tyres are performing. It’s quite cold here,
especially compared to Jerez, so it was
difficult to warm up the tyres to begin with,
but we’ve learned quite a lot from the short
runs we did.”
Nick: “The balance of the car was not as good as
it was in Jerez, but we did improve things by
the end of the day. We lost a bit of time at the
start of the afternoon, but when I did get out
we did some useful work including new tyre runs,
data collection and some work on the car’s
systems. But we still need lots more mileage
because there are a lot of things on our job
list to try, especially for the set-up of the
car.”
Alan Permane’s technical programme notes
- The main task of the day was to put some
miles on the car to make up for the track
time we lost yesterday.
- We focussed on medium-length runs of
eight to ten laps, and worked on the set-up
and understanding the tyres on this track.
We ran on three out of the four dry tyre
compounds, evaluating both new and scrubbed
sets.
Day 3, wet and dry running for Vitaly
What we learned today:
- We gathered some useful data on the
intermediates Pirelli tyres as Vitaly and
the team completed its first significant
mileage on them
- The R31 was fitted with a different spec
of exhaust tail pipe. Aero data was
collected to assess its effect on car
performance.
Vitaly: “We used the intermediates to begin
with and it was one of our first opportunities
to do a lot of laps with them. The only issue we
had was warming them up because it was very cold
early on. The plan was to do a race distance in
the morning and we managed quite a lot of long
runs while the track was wet. Then, we put the
slicks on just before lunch and started
improving the set-up. We learned a lot of new
things and I’m starting to understand the tyres
more and how to get the most from this car.”
Alan Permane’s technical programme notes
- It was a slow start to the day with the
wet conditions, but we did some long runs on
the intermediates. However we were
interrupted by several red flags.
- For the afternoon, Vitaly started a
set-up programme, and we made some good
progress with the suspension changes at the
front and rear. We also did some work with
tyre pressures and found some more
improvements. Overall the car has responded
well to the changes today and Vitaly has
been much happier.”
Day 4, a race distance for Nick
What we learned today:
- A new front wing was fitted on the car
and the team carried out some aero mapping
to assess its effectiveness. First
impressions were positive.
- The team completed its first race
distance simulation and was pleased with the
feel of the car on high fuel.
Nick: “In the morning we were not able to do
most of our programme because we had an issue
with the KERS. It’s a shame because track time
is so limited, but it’s obviously better to have
problems during testing before the season
starts. In the afternoon we started the race
simulation, which went reasonably well. We were
using different tyre compounds and tried both
scrubbed and new sets. We learned a lot by
running the car on high fuel and have lots of
useful data about the degradation rates. Then,
at the end of the day, we returned to the set-up
work.”
Alan Permane’s technical programme notes
- It was a difficult morning because we
lost time with a KERS problem. We managed to
resolve the issue before lunch and started
with our set-up programme.
- For the afternoon our target was a race
distance. We pretty much completed the
mileage we needed to, apart from a couple of
laps due to a red flag. We ended the day
with further set-up work and found some good
directions.
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