In a new regular column for our sister publication Motorsport Monday, Aston Martin Racing’s Technical Director Dan Sayers gives us his debrief and comments from the opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone. In this edition, Sayers looks at the uniqueness of racing at ‘home’, the tricky new tyre regulations for GTE, and the intense homework required for success…
On preparing for Silverstone…
In theory, our Silverstone weekend started just after the 6 Hours of Bahrain last November! The cars were sea-freighted back to the UK and arrived at our Banbury HQ in the New Year. Once the cars were back we went straight into a full strip and rebuild for the upcoming year. Everything is fully crack-checked and taken away down to the bare chassis. It’s such a critical point because failure to spot any problems early could mean carrying those through into the season itself.
We started thinking about Silverstone four weeks in advance. It’s a hectic time, from both an engineer’s perspective and a driver’s. There are lots of meetings beforehand outlining all the run plans. Everything is well documented and thought over before we arrive at the circuit.
Free practice sessions enable us to verify our pre-race predictions: for example, we may run a hard front-left or a complete left side of the car, so we tailor our free practice run plans to find out that information. We need to find that information out early so we can set the car up to suit. Having two cars in GTE-Pro helps with that because we can have each car running a different configuration during practice.
On what’s new for 2017…
With the tyre regulation changes this year (GTE allowance reduced from six to four sets per race) there’s been a lot of testing to ensure we have a durable tyre, because double-stinting this year is going to be a challenge. We ran the cars differently in FP1 with different tyre configurations, to learn which one would be the best option going forward. The tyre strategy is such a huge part of the race now following the onset of the new regulations: it dominates the weekend preparation.
The other big variable is the way the Balance of Performance (BoP) is adjusted. It’s fully automatic at the rounds after Le Mans, so it will be interesting to see how that works out for us. The timing of the new BoP system is eminent. I think we’re closer than we were last year and having looked at the timing and analysis from Silverstone we’ve improved at a greater rate than Ford, Porsche and Ferrari.
This year our Am car (the #98) is running in the same spec our Pro cars ran last year. All our cars are upgraded versions of the previous year’s Vantage models, and the upgrades are mostly bodywork related so they are easy to carry out. We had a year of experience on Dunlop tyres for the 2016 configuration of the #98, so a lot of time has been spent trying to make it easy to drive. By that we get more consistency out of our Pro drivers and a huge amount of benefit from the Ams.
Paul [Dalla Lana] is a fantastic driver, and on his day is unbeatable against the other guys in Am. The first time the #98 ran was during a winter test, then it headed to Monza for the official test days and straight into the first race, so it hasn’t done a huge amount of running, but the drivers are very comfortable with it which bodes well for the rest of the season.
On the race itself…
GTE-Pro:
#95 Nicki Thiim/Marco Sørensen/Richie Stanaway – started 3rd, finished 6th
#97 Darren Turner/Jonny Adam/Daniel Serra – started 5th, finished 7th
GTE-Am:
#98 Pedro Lamy/Mathias Lauda/Paul Dalla Lana – started 1st, finished 2nd
We got the best out of the race we could. We had an unfortunate incident when the #97 pitted towards the end for its final stop – we were timing that so we could get out in front of the #71 Ferrari. It would have been a good, close race between the two cars from that point. However, unfortunately the #97 got collected by an LMP1 car which compromised its race completely because it needed a few garage repairs.
The pace was not what we had hoped for, that’s clear. As it usually is at Silverstone, the conditions were very cold. It can get pretty grim in the garage sometimes! We were struggling to switch the tyres on throughout the race. This year the temperature was a little too low for us. It was consistent, which was great, but we had to work continually on trying to improve and increase the tyre temperature, which is difficult to do when it’s consistently around nine degrees.
We go into every race weekend fully expecting the unexpected. We do a lot of scenario planning in advance. The last thing you want to be doing when one of those is thrown is panicking and being unsure of what to do. Every scenario we can think of it predefined – but there are always factors we can’t prepare for!
We had a safety car during the second half of the race which put our scenario planning into practice. For the Pro cars, it was straightforward – we just followed our procedure and gained a few seconds – but unfortunately the Am car lost a massive lead. From then on it was a constant on-track fight as the track cooled down into the final few hours. It was a fight to the end, culminating with an incident which meant we finished second as opposed to first, so the safety car compromised our race, undoing all the work our Am-car drivers had done up to that point. It was frustrating, but that’s part of racing – we know we will win some and lose some throughout the season. Unquestionably I think if the #98 car had a clean run we would have won.
If I could describe how the race went in three words, I’d use:
Planned – it was the best planning we have ever had for a race event. At the start, we went out with our plan and we didn’t deviate from it, which is challenging from a driver’s perspective as they had other cars drive off at a faster initial pace. But it’s vital to stick to the plan and optimise everything in terms of managing the tyres throughout the stint to make sure the car is as quick at the end as it is at the start.
Execution – we executed our plan as well as possible. We can only optimise our plan away from what the weather or our competitors are doing.
Challenging – In terms of the varying weather, different drivers and the couple of incidents we had – both in Pro and Am – it was very challenging.
On racing at home…
Silverstone means a lot because it’s the home event for Aston Martin. As the first race of the year and being just down the road from HQ means it’s unquestionably important…
However, in terms of the championship, it doesn’t mean too much. Last year we proved that – at the first two races we had only two finishes out of four between the pair of Pro cars. At Spa, one ended up on its roof and at Silverstone one had a technical problem, but we still went on to win the championship. Whilst we would like to be sitting here with more points in the bag after Silverstone we only got one fewer than last year, so all is not lost.
The Silverstone weekend offered a good opportunity to take the designers and some of the people who don’t normally attend races. It benefits our development of future cars, because if the designers understand the environment we work in – for instance the necessities required to do quick setup changes, and what the drivers find tricky or easy – they can take that information and use it. It’s something we benefit from greatly during the Silverstone weekend, even if it’s not race-related.
There is a bit more pressure since we had more people in the garages from staff to guests, but one of the best things about Aston Martin is that the garages are very open. We have lots of guests who enjoy getting extremely close to the action. Moreover, the team really enjoys seeing people enjoying the experience so it creates a nice environment. Although the engineers are boxed off in their own compartment, people can still see what’s going on in there! It adds so much to the whole race weekend. The openness is excellent.
On improvements for the next WEC race…
This coming weekend at Spa, we’re looking to continue all the factors we put in place planning-wise. It’s good for the whole team to know what the plan is when we arrive at the venue. It creates a calmer environment in which we just focus on the things that matter at the circuit.
A key point to the championship is that we need to finish every race. If we can do that at the first two circuits which are historically our tougher tracks then that would be a huge improvement on last year. We didn’t have too many incidents towards the tail end of last season so it pays to get both cars to the finish at every race, for both Pro and Am, because that way we keep ourselves firmly in the world championship title hunt.
Discussion about this post