16/10/2011
Race Engineer for Bruno Senna, Simon Rennie gives an insight into his role over a race weekend, and how preparations have been going for today’s Korean Grand Prix.
Simon, tell us what you do over the weekend.
SR: I’m the race engineer for Bruno, which means I’m his main point of contact with the team. This means we work closely together about all aspects of what he does at the track.
The process starts before going out on track when we talk about any new parts we have and the direction which we are going with the set-up of the car for this particular circuit, which things we plan to test during the weekend, all that sort of thing,
There’s a lot of work which goes on before we get to the track, so that Bruno’s fully up to speed with everything we’re going to be doing,
During the weekend when we’re running the car we have certain things which we want to test, it’s alright having all the theories but then when you put the car on the track then you can learn how it actually reacts to the changes. Quite a lot of the practice sessions are dedicated to this, working on things like the car balance, if it has poor traction, or understeer in high speed corners and getting the car to a state where it can deliver the best performance.
That builds up through the practice sessions, then in qualifying we have an idea of what we want to do and Bruno gives his input for what he needs from us to get the most out of the car and the tyres to be able to deliver the fastest laps.
For the race we talk through strategy and work with the strategists and chief race engineer to work out what we think our best tactics are going to be for the race. We discuss it with Bruno and go through all the permutations which could come out of it and during the race we put it all into action.
So how has the weekend gone so far in Yeongam?
SR: It’s been a tricky weekend. On Friday we had a couple of issues with the car which made it very difficult for him to drive. On top of that, learning the track in the wet is not the same as in the dry when you can you can push the limits. Although he was pushing, it was in a car which wasn’t well sorted at that point so it wasn’t so effective.
On Saturday morning the car was working well, but unfortunately Bruno had a little off on the first run on prime tyres which cost us a little bit in terms of track time.
Then, in qualifying, not knowing the track particularly and not having a lot of laps in the dry meant that Bruno didn’t extract the most out of the car’s potential so P15 was the result.
It’s a different day today and it’s a long race so we’ll see if we can get some points from where we are.
After a below par qualifying performance like yesterday, how much time do you spend analysing the data?
SR: Actually, we look at the data and telemetry all weekend. Our best reference point, the only person we can really compare with is Bruno’s team-mate Vitaly. Every session we compare the laps to see if one car is quicker in a particular section, if there is a different line which can be taken.
We even do this during qualifying whilst he’s sat in the car – as well as the TV pictures and timing screens on the monitor, you can get an overlay of each driver’s best lap against each other so you can zoom in on certain sections. We talk through this then Bruno can go out on the track and try to put it into practice.
How do you think Bruno has adapted to the tough task of becoming a race driver mid-season?
SR: I think he’s done very well. He was helped a little by having been our third driver all year, meaning he sat in the meetings, and in the engineers’ office so he knows the sorts of things that we talk about and the way that we operate. In that respect it is not as if he’s jumped into a foreign team – I believe he felt comfortable within the team so from that side of things he didn’t have to worry about anything, he’s been able to focus with getting on with the driving.
I think he’s adapted very well from the first time he did a full weekend at Spa. That was very difficult conditions, wet all weekend. He did a couple of laps in the dry on the Friday which was not really enough to learn anything, then he got through to Q3 and did a very good lap on dry tyres and was P7. We took a lot of positives from the fact he could jump straight in and deliver.
Since then we’ve had some highs and some lows, but generally he’s been good.
What’s possible from P15 today?
SR: It’s going to be difficult to get points. We’re behind slower cars, a bit out of position as shown by Vitaly being in P8. That said, it’s closely packed around us with the other teams having made a step forwards meaning there are a lot of cars in the group around us of a similar pace. It’s going to be difficult to get ahead of them and get points but that is the aim.
Any tricks up our sleeves?
SR: That would be telling…
Credit: Lotus Renault GP (www.lotusrenaultgp.com)
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