F1, a sport where things are calculated to the thinnest margins. Even finances.
It was Y/N's dream to race in F1 one day. He was the quickest driver in junior categories. However, his F1 dreams was shattered by a driver with huge financial backing...
After the car reveal, it was finally time for the pre season test and my first ever official session in a Formula 1 car. I have never driven the new Aston Martin car before so I was very nervous because I don't know how this car will handle. However, on the other hand, I was very excited that I am finally a part of the Formula 1 grid. I will be taking the wheel for the whole day today before handing it over to my teammate Lance Stroll tomorrow and then sharing duties on the final day of this pre season test.
My programme for the first day will include doing an installation lap making sure that the car is fine before doing some long runs and tyre wear management which means it will be mostly heavy fuel running. However, I will be doing some qualifying pace towards the end of the day which means I get to put my foot down and really find the limits of this car. Putting my helmet and the HANS device on, I let the mechanics strap myself into the cockpit before going towards the end of the pit lane to wait for the green light to signal the start of day one for pre season testing.
Tim Wright: Ok Y/N, we want a practice start and then an installation lap. Remember no kerbs on the installation lap. So clutch position 3.
Finishing the installation lap, I entered the pits so that the team and engineers could check the data to make sure that the car was working towards the plan and that we don't have any problems with hardware and software. Also, it gave me a chance to learn about the car itself. There was so many things that I need to learn, mostly about the steering wheel. The steering wheel is so much more complicated compared to IndyCar and Formula 2 which is what I experienced last season. Even though I have driven the Haas VF17 before, the buttons are completely different on this Aston Martin so I need to get used to this new steering wheel so I won't press the wrong button during a race.
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A tiny break and a few tweaks to the set up of the car later, I set off for another run. This time it was with race fuel load and on the C2 tyres. This run will allow me to understand how the car will feel with race fuel onboard. As I have previously mentioned, it was a learning curve from me and this will be my first time driving a Formula 1 car with race fuel load on board. I made sure I followed Tim Wright's instruction during the programme so I don't make a mistake.
Tim Wright: Ok Y/N, strat mode 5. We want at least 20 laps on these set.
It was a really tough 20 laps on the C2 compound tyres. With heavy fuel and hard tyres, the car was very unresponsive and was understeering into every corner. It was safe to say that I was struggling with these set of tyres.
Y/N: Struggling quite a lot with understeer.
Tim Wright: Copy Y/N, we'll change the wing angle to see if it'll give you more front.
Y/N: Copy, plus two on front wing.
Tim Wright: Box and pit confirm Y/N.
Changing the setup did make my run feel a little bit better but still there wasn't much grip on the car and it was still understeering, especially through the high speed corners. However, I had to make do with it because sometimes Formula 1 is about making compromises. Towards the end of the run, the car was getting better to drive even though the tyres are degrading, the fuel load was getting lower meaning the car was lighter and the car was much more responsive. With the team calling me in I entered the garage so I could go over the data.
Andrew Green: Yep the data looks good. Fuel consumption and tyre degradation are idea. The tyres degraded a little more than we expected but all in all it was productive. Now let's go onto the qualifying pace and see how the car runs on low fuel.
Tim Wright: So Y/N, strat mode 2 this time and engine mode 14.
With that I strapped on the C5 tyres and went out to see how the car felt on low fuel and maximum power. I have 3 flying laps to try and maximise the pace finding the limit of the car. After a day of hard work, lap times for every team are tumbling as drivers went on softer tyre compounds and lower fuel. My first push lap went alright and the time I put me fifth on the timing sheets. I wasn't really happy and I knew there was more I could extract from the car so I decided to push to the limit. It was going well because I saw on the dash that I was green after the first sector meaning I was on a personal best. However, disaster happened as I entered turn 12. With me pushing too hard, I felt the rear of the car going away from me and failing to catch it sent me into a massive spin. Finding myself facing the wrong direction, I quickly spun round before the track became a massive hazard and went back into the garage as Tim Wright told me to do so.
Tim Wright: All ok with the car?
Y/N: Yeah, I think. Tyres are gone.
Tim Wright: Copy, box and pit confirm. We'll go over the data and see what happened. You've still got loads to learn mate.
After getting out of the car, I joined my engineers to go through the data so I could see how I did over the course of the day and see if there are anything I could learn from this testing session. From what I learnt from this session was that the car understeers a lot when it was with heavy fuel but it was also very front responsive when the car is light. This means that if I turn in too much in the high speed corners, it will cause the rear of the car to snap and with the chassis being front responsive, once I head into a big snap of oversteer, the car will pirouette which was what caused the spin I had today. With the things I have learned and the experience I gathered today, I asked the team to see if they could change the steering rack to fit my driving style more and hopefully add a bit more rear downforce on the rear diffuser before the start of the season so the car doesn't spin that easily. All in all, it was a really productive day and I felt that I have learned a lot over today's session and there were definitely lessons I could take from the test today towards the opening round at Bahrain in a few weeks time.
A chapter talking about what Y/N learnt on pre season testing. I know it's a bit boring and there will be more chapters about Y/N's races as this book heads into the final straight. Somi will probably get less mentions so my apologies if this book gets boring to you. But please stick around to the end because the ending is definitely worth reading.
The next chapter will be a racing chapter as Y/N take on his Formula 1 debut. So if you want to know how Y/N does on his debut, please be sure to read the next chapter. Also, don't skip the next chapter if you don't like racing chapters because all the upcoming chapters lead towards the finale.
Finally don't forget to vote and share this book. Thank you very much for supporting my work and remember to vote along as you read this book. I will publish the next chapter tomorrow and I will see you then. Please continue supporting my work.
