Sara apparently turned champagne into a deadly weapon, if one is to believe a priggish town council representative. Kirkus deals with the fallout.
We do a post mortem on Munich and contemplate the choice of staying out on the wrong tyres vs coming in for an extra refuelling pit, looking at some data centre numbers from Munich.
Celebration time! Silvia’s level 2 scouting centre arrives. Was it worth the $5 million? We’ll see. Unfortunately her scouting on pit crew, well…
At least we’re not paying the amount for drivers that ONE team is. Which one? Tune in and see!
In the sordid world of motorsport politics, we look at whether suspension systems will be made spec for 2019, leaving only three parts (engine, brakes and gearbox) being able to be developed. Just by coincidence, those are Freddie’s three strong suits. How do you think we’ll vote?
Freddie, Gary and Kirkus hatch a devious plan to get a new part into use early using one of Freddie’s custom components.
We sign on another new sponsor, and yet again get less than we had been. The A sponsors are for the most part out there in 2019.
And at the end of all that we pack our galoshes, raincoats and umbrellas, and board a BA flight to Heathrow.
Before The Lights
Nobody is getting out of here in only 2 pits.
Lightning flashes, thunder roars, and the odds of at least one crash are very short indeed.
At least in the GT series you have a roof, a nice comfy heater and a stereo system to tune into the latest hits.
In an open wheeler, there’s nothing but Nomex and a helmet between you and the delightful English weather.
Laps 1 to 3 were clear and 12°, with rain starting from lap 4. The rain increased to saturate the track but began to break around lap 13. The track was dry by lap 17 / lap 18, and there was no further rain.
Weight Stripping And Config
Gomes
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine*: Good, +60 to 233 (80%)
Brakes: Good, +90 to 267 (70%)
Suspension*: Stock, 140 (88%)
Gearbox: Great, +90 to 298 (70%)
Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
Effective: 1,238
Practice was done on softs only.
Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 16.0/26.5 (Excellent)
Suspension 94% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 81% (Great)
98% Total
Finished 11th in practice.
10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
We took the 10% bonus for race trim but the risk taker since the weather showed rain, and there would therefore be a need for more pit stops.
Thomas
Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
Engine*: Good, +60 to 234 (80%)
Brakes: Good, +90 to 285 (70%)
Suspension*: Good, +60 to 223 (73%)
Gearbox: Great, +90 to 303 (70%)
Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
Effective: 1,345
Practice was done on softs only.
Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
Wings 15.5/25.5 (Excellent)
Suspension 88% (Excellent)
Gear Ratio 69% (Excellent)
99% Total
Finished 12th in practice.
10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
Both of those were taken.
Pit Plan
Formulated “on the fly” given the chane of weather due at lap 4.
Gomes
4: 50% SS and 0.62 laps. Fast strategy. Given fresh Wets and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70% but gearbox at only 65%. Obbedio made a mistake on the front jack costing 1.884 seconds.
13: 38% and 0.57 laps. Fast strategy. Given Inters and 6 laps of fuel to do 5 with an expected further pit on lap 18. (A diminishing amount of water on track was expected for that entire time.) Engine 49%, gearbox 51%, brakes 52%, suspension 55%, wings 61%.
17: 67% Inters and 2.33 laps. Fast strategy. He was given a fresh set of Super Softs and 7 laps of fuel to do 6 laps. Engine and gearbox were at 40%, brakes and suspension at 48%, wings around 55%. There was still a very small amount of water on the track but arguably he should have been left out for one more to burn the fuel.
Thomas
5 : 23% SS and 0.49 laps. Given fresh Wets and and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70%, gearbox at 69%, brakes at 67%. The others were in the mid to high 70’s.
14: 29% and 0.35 laps. Given 10 laps of fuel to do 9 laps and a fresh set of Softs. There would still be water on the track for a few laps but after that it was going to become sunny and warmer. Engine at 50%, gearbox 54%, brakes 48%, suspension 53%, front wings 68% and rear wings 51%.
Race Report
Target: 10th or above, 400K. (Nippon)
Given that rain was forecast to start from lap 4, Gomes was sent out on Super Softs with 5 laps of fuel to pound it from the outset.
Sara was sent out with 6 laps of fuel and Super Softs. Since smoothness doesn’t matter the intention was to stretch out the time on her first set of tyres.
Both drivers were launched in Attack / High.
Sara was on row 5 (10th) and Gomes was on row 6 (12th). All but a couple of the teams launched on Super Softs, the others on Softs.
Lap 2: Thomas had shot up to 3rd, Gomes to 7th. The cars were pretty evenly split between Overtake and Medium fuel burn with a mixture of driving modes.
Lap 4: Gomes pitted to change tyres. The track looked like it would be saturated by lap 7, so I decided to put him out on Wets despite the fact that 5 and 6 looked like laps best suited to Inters.
Lap 5: 6 cars (including Gomes) had pitted to change to Wets. Thomas called in at 35% tyres and a projected 0.49 laps of fuel. Both drivers were dropped back to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 6: 14 cars had changed to Wets and all of the others were in the pits.
Lap 7: Melo and Iannizzi both picked up drive through penalties. Thomas 1st (1:33.422; out lap) and Gomes 6th (1:26.244, flying). Others all over the place due to pitting for tyre changes.
Lap 9: Engelhart took the lead, doing times of 1:23.808 to Thomas’ (2nd) 1:24.429. Gomes was in 5th at 1:24.366, slightly faster than Marchetta in front and the 4 cars following.
Lap 11: Thomas had dropped to 3rd behind Sabado, and had low tyre temperatures. Gomes was holding 5th but had the same problem. Both were sent to Attack mode.
Lap 13: The rain started to reduce and the track dried marginally. Gomes was called in with 46% and a projected 0.48 laps of fuel.
Lap 14: Sara was called in with wets at 36% and projected fuel 0.29 laps. Gomes set to Push / Medium. About half of the cars were still on wets with the rest pitting for a mixture of Inters, Softs and Super Softs. Thomas was set to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 15: Gomes 1st place, Thomas 6th. Gomes was one of only 6 cars on Inters. The vast majority were on Softs by now. The track was drying out rapidly and would be dry by lap 18.
Lap 17: Gomes was called in at 77% Inters and 2.22 laps of fuel.
Lap 18: Sara (3rd) put to Push / High to warm her tyres and burn her fuel. Gomes (8th) on Neutral / High.
Lap 23: Thomas 3rd, Gomes 8th. Both drivers reporting mechanical issues.
Gomes’ engine 30%, gearbox 29%, brakes and suspension 38%, wings 51 and 42%.
Thomas finished 3rd with 28% and 0.58 laps, Gomes 8th with about 35% and 0.46 laps, though he was on overtake for a lot of the last lap.
The winner was Falko (Garuda), Sabado 2nd (Firebird MRT, +7.4 seconds), Thomas 3rd (+10), Stone Jr (Garuda, +11.8), Marchetta (Octane, +20.3), Santa Ana (Vexala, +22.2), Zarate (Kruger, +23.7) and Gomes (+24.2).
Marchetta was demoted 2 places for dodgy parts. That dropped him to 7th but did not change Gomes’ finish.
Rogers also had dodgy parts and dropped from 15th to 17th.
Melo received a drive through penalty.
Aftermath
This represented our first podium position.
Gomes went to 6th and Thomas to 11th in the driver’s championship.