Julien Gerbi: Rain wrecks Silverstone promise
Posted by Julien Gerbi in Formula Palmer Audi
Hello everyone,
After a difficult first weekend at Brands Hatch, I took the road to Silverstone in order to participate in the Formula Palmer Audi’s 4th, 5th and 6th rounds.
For once, it was easier to learn the track thanks to the hours spent on the video games. Also, having been rocked during my childhood by watching the fights between Prost, Senna and Mansell – which often took place at this track – I had some reference points about the overtaking opportunities!
Behind the scenes, Brazilian friend and fellow competitor Thiago Calvet and I decided to use the fantastic communication product that is motorsport to send a message of support to the families of the Air France flight Rio-Paris. We hope this message can reach them and can give them some comfort.
On track, we didn’t have any major surprises. Faithfull to its reputation, Silverstone served up its typical weather, rocked by wind and rain interrupted by rare sunny times. A very difficult situation for choosing the car set-up, because of track conditions changing very quickly. The decision between setting the car for the rain, for the dry or for an intermediate situation was quite difficult.
During free practice on a dry track, my car responded excellently. After a few reconnaissance laps, I could start to push a bit. I quickly jumped to the top part of the classification, only two tenths of a second from the fastest time. A real relief after Brands Hatch, and above all a performance that boded well for the rest of the weekend. Silverstone is quite a fast track though, and I immediately felt comfortable into the fast corners. My team and I worked on the balance of the car in these parts, while maintaining a good set-up for the slow curves.
But on Saturday morning and the last free practice, our efforts were ruined by a rainstorm. With so little experience in these conditions at the wheel of a car with a turbocharger and 360bhp, I must confess that I was a little apprehensive about the idea of challenging this wet track!
But after a few laps, when my mechanic Chris Roberts showed me the P1 board – moreover with an advantage of half a second over my nearest competitor – I realized we were on to something good. I decided to use this free session in order to try to exceed the limits of my car in these conditions. “Brake later, accelerate earlier, more violent with the gas pedal without being surprised by the sudden power from the turbo”. With this driving style, my times improved considerably, until I made a tiny mistake and finished in the gravel trap only three minutes from the end of the session, while I was still at the top of the ranking. Nevertheless, I had no regrets because there was no damage done to the car, and I had been able to find the limits.
Unfortunately, faced with the weather changing, we then made bad choices with the set-up for qualifying. A challenge that did not work and which did not allow me to do better than 9th and 12th on the starting grid.
The races would be tough, but nothing was lost. About the races, there is much to tell. F2 driver Jolyon Palmer’s scary accident, who lost control of his car on the brakes at over 230kmh, and who then hit the two cars preceding me. Or the long battles that I had with Paul Rees, Ash Babbra and Adam Foster, with wheels touching and overtaking on the grass! The races were very exciting, and I eventually was able to bring my car No. 14 of the Team Biotech International in the top 10 twice.
A positive weekend then, even if my practice results have proven that I can place higher. Snetterton will be a good chance to confirm these performances!
Entries (RSS)