Press Releases - MRC 101 - Part VI

MRC 101 - Part VI

Blazefp Magazine is back this week with the long awaited last part of Blazefp and Francisco Pires' interview.
To close up the MRC 101 series, we've decided to show some more advanced and tricky techniques which aren't completely necessary to win races, specially in lower series but might be helpful.

RACES III (wet conditions, advanced techniques and pit strategies):


Blazefp Magazine: Alright then, this interview has gone longer than expected so let's wrap it up with some advanced techniques. How should an engineer adjust the car setup for rainy races?

Blazefp: Well, we've got to keep in mind that the setup we get from our race engineer is always suitable for any weather and so I wouldn't mess with it unless you're completely certain of what you're doing and have some field experience. This extra setup is not necessary to win most races, just those where the best drivers in the world compete, and even then...

Warnings off, now let's move to the subject in hand. What happens with rain is that it turns the ground slippery, the car gets less grip hence we can adjust its setup to make it safer and faster.

I'm not going to tell exactly how to adjust the car for wet conditions, of course, instead I'll try to show you the logic I follow.
If the car lacks traction, I can't make its wheels accelerate too quickly. For this reason, gear ratio should not be focused so much on acceleration but rather a bit more on maximum speed. To increase traction we can increase the down force or enlarge the tires contact with the ground by making the softer, etc etc etc.

Wet conditions also imply a steadier car. Because of this, the gap between front and rear setups must be shortened too.
You should also note that these changes cannot in any way can be abrupt.

Francisco Pires: We should be very careful with these setups. When done correctly they might provide a significant advantage to the driver, however if you miss it, even by a little , you can worsen the car's performance and make it more prone to accidents. Only experienced managers should adventures in this woods.


Blazefp Magazine: Right, but even if the day is clean, it's one thing to do 40 laps with a full fuel tank and another to do 2 laps with the tank almost empty.
How does this weight difference affects the car performance?

Blazefp: The logic is the same: less weight -> less grip -> make up for it with the setup.
Tires pressure is going to be lower, gear ratio stretches, wings more leaned, etc.

Francisco Pires: But in this case the adjustment has to be even softer because 52 liters (roughly 50 kg) equals only about 1/10th of the car's total weight in F3.

Braking bias is a special case, it shouldn't change much. Just remember that a car should brake better on the wheels with better traction.


Blazefp Magazine: There are several pit stop strategies in races. Can you explain us that a little bit better?

Blazefp: Bottom line, you should cut on the pit stops for narrow tracks and tracks with few overtaking opportunities, like Monte Carlo (specially Monte Carlo) and in short and fast tracks, like almost every oval.
However, it's a great choice to visit the pits more than once in long races and/or when qualifications went bad. It gives us time to easily overtake the slowest ones and put us back in a good offensive position.

Francisco Pires: You should always study the tracks before you race there, watch some onboard videos on youtube (the car used doesn't matter much, you should pay attention to the road and the hazard turns), check past race reports from your driver and others and try to understand what went right or wrong in their and your strategies, etc. The more intel you get to setup the race the better.


Blazefp Magazine: Okay. I won't take you any more time, I know you spent a lot of it here. Thanks very much for you availability and see you next time.

Blazefp: Pfft, don't mention it, I only hope to have helped someone at least. Just keep in mind this business is alive and so adjustments to these suggestions might be made in the future but everything we said should probably stay current.

Francisco Pires: Yep, quite a lot of time indeed, but we could write a book if you wanted us to really dig into this!

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And with this is time to end the interview Blazefp and Francisco Pires provided us...for good this time.
We hope to have answered at least most of your more important questions, if not, well you can always ask our interviewees.

See you next time and keep your pedal to the medal.