| On Wednesday, the 29th March, the FIA Formula 2 Championship teams will be back on track again at the Sakhir International Circuit, Bahrain for the final pre-season test session. As in the previous test days at Barcelona it will last for three days with two three hour sessions per day and it will be a final opportunity for the Racing Engineering team and the two new drivers, Louis Delétraz and Gustav Malja to fine tune their cars for the season’s racing away from all the pressures that a race weekend bring. Both Louis and Gustav showed at Barcelona that they are rapidly getting used to their new team, and for Louis he also has to learn all about racing a FIA Formula 2 Championship car in what will be his first full season in the category.
Below Racing Engineering’s Technical Director Sebastien Viger explains what the team is looking to achieve over the three days.
Following the first FIA Formula 2 Championship pre-season test in Barcelona, what are your expectations regarding the second one in Bahrain?
There will be a lot of lines to cross off on our to-do list in Bahrain. First, Louis will need to learn the track which always takes a couple of runs, even though we will have an intensive simulator session before getting to the track. Second, we will bring an extensive list of items and solutions to tweak the car in order to have the best combination of car and driver at the first race. The degradation in Bahrain is normally quite high, so we will have to prioritise and organise the work accordingly. Also, the first race of the season will be right after on this particular track, so the work done here will be really important to prepare for the race weekend. So, we expect a lot of work and intensity in these tests to be as ready as we can for the first race.
Louis Delétraz is a rookie, and It will be the first time he has driven at Bahrain; however, Gustav is starting his second season and he knows the track. Does this influence the work with the drivers for the test days?
Of course, your performance and test list are always linked with the driver performance, so we have more work to do prior to the tests in order to prepare the driver. We have good data from the past that we can use to help him, as well as the general team knowledge and simulator sessions. But the ultimate thing is to actually drive the car, so hopefully Louis will find himself at ease with this technical track. As for Gustav, even if he knows the track, it has been two years since he was here so it is all about refreshing and correcting things before hitting the track.
From a technical and driving point of view, which aspects are the ones you will prioritise for the upcoming test days in Bahrain?
It will be important for us to leave these tests with a clear idea, driving wise and technically, to prepare for the race weekend. As I said before, the race will be right after at the same track, so the conclusions from the test will be really important. It will be about preparing the drivers and testing different solutions, both in Qualifying mode and Race mode, so as to improve their feeling with the car and to unlock performance. Short run pace, drivability, tire degradation, driving techniques… all these things will be right up the top of our testing program. We saw in Barcelona that the field was quite close so it will be all about small details and putting everything together. |
