SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT UPDATES.

QUALIFYING:
" After suffering from understeer at Snetterton, we went into Silverstone with a new setup which we hoped would reduce the understeer that we was experiencing. We went out for qualifying but the rear of the car felt very loose through turn 1 which caused chronic oversteer at 90mph through turn 1 which made completing a fast lap very difficult. This placed us P5 in class which I wasn’t very happy with so we went back to the drawing board to try and balance the car through the first high speed corner while maintaining good low speed grip.

The engine warning light also came on after qualifying which put the car in limp mode, the team diagnosed it as a faulty knock sensor and went to work on replacing this ahead of the race."

RACING:
"We went into race 1 with a positive mind-set knowing that we had made some strong changes to the setup which we were confident would allow us to move forward.

The car felt very strange during this session, the rear end was much more stable but the front end grip wasn’t as good as I had expected which meant that we were only able to maintain P5 and not move forward.

After reviewing the data on the car and TSL timing, we noticed that our geometry on the front end of the car was significantly out of line which meant we only had -1.5 degrees of camber on the front left wheel and somehow -4.5 degrees of camber on the front right. After a chat with the team, it seems that when the knock sensor was replaced and the front strut brace was removed, the shock absorber top mounts must have been knocked causing the geometry to be put out of line causing the lack of front end grip. We also noticed on TSL timing that we had the second slowest top speed through the speed trap which was causing us to lose a lot of time in a straight line compared to the other drivers who were averaging 5-6mph more than me down both straights.

We pulled the car in for the alignment to be set back to how it should be and we checked the car for faults but nothing was found.

After a frustrating few sessions, we went out on a charge to try and regain some positions. After a good start, I managed to work up to P3 which is where I sat for most of the race until 2 drivers closed in behind me and drove past me in the straights with significantly more speed than me.

This was very frustrating and again only placed us P5 in class. Multiple checks were made to the car and we found a fault code which was believed to be an issue with the high pressure fuel pump. We were unable to make anymore repairs to the car due to the lack of time available between then and the final race which meant we just had to go out and work with what we’d got.

Race 3 was very wet and everyone was making gambles on tyre strategy, we chose to go for the dry tyres as we believed we could make them work if we could get enough heat into them and stay away from any standing water.

With our lack of straight line speed, we knew it would be difficult but we knew we had the weather conditions on our side.

I managed to get a good launch off the line which allowed me to move forward and into P4, we maintained that position and even overtook cars in the class above me which I was happy with.

Another driver collided into my car when he out-braked himself trying to overtake me which put me sideways through the final turn but I managed to catch the slide and on track we finished P4."

"After the race, multiple drivers were called to race control as they ran a mixture of dry tyres on the front and wet tyres on the rear which turns out is against the rules and they were disqualified from the race which promoted me up to P3.

Overall it was a very tough weekend and we have some work to do to fix the car and get it back to where it needs to be for Donington next month."

Images provided by OJL Photos