The Insider 60

7/29/2019 The Insider 60

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2013, APRIL 19-21 SAKHIR ROUND 2

STATUS QUOLeimer wins again, but

Coletti keeps the lead

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Fumanelli flies in final test session

GP3 SERIES™2013 SEASON

FIVE SECONDS!


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Fabio Leimer and Alexander Rossi havebeen racing against each other for years

and although the on-track competition

can be erce between them, outside the carthe two are good friends. In parc fermé afterSaturday’s race, the Caterham Racing driverrushed to the Swiss and gently patted him onhis helmet to congratulate Fabio on anotherrace win.

The following day, things got a bit rough as theAmerican was involved in a racing incident thatsent him into contact with Fabio’s car. The frontend plate of the Caterham car lodged itself intothe Racing Engineering machine. Alexanderhad to return to the pits for a new wing, whilstFabio managed to continue in spite of thedamage sustained on his car. Before leavingthe circuit though, Fabio signed Caterham’sbroken part and returned it to Alexander with acheeky smile plastered on his face. Alexanderhas promised Fabio he won’t try to makeanymore aerodynamics upgrades again.

pax 1M 72

rlin 70

cing Engineering 2M 64

SSIAN TIME 1M 45

T Grand Prix 26

den International 20

terham Racing 15

AMS 12

P Motorsport 7

mer Motorsport 2

nezuela GP Lazarus 1

dent Racing 0

rwa Addax Team 0

CLASSIFICATIONS

EAMS’ STANDINGS

efano Coletti 1M 64

bio Leimer 2M 54

ipe Nasr 48

m Bird 1M 33

mes Calado 24

yon Palmer 22

exander Rossi Rookie 15

m Dillmann 12

éphane Richelmi 12

ch Evans Rookie 11

án Leal 10

hnny Cecotto Jr.9

mon Trummer 8

rian Quaife-Hobbs Rookie 7

nor Daly Rookie 2 niel Abt Rookie 2

ne Binder 1

vin Ceccon 0

vin Giovesi Rookie 0

rgio Canamasas 0

rcus Ericsson 0

niel De Jong 0

o Haryanto 0

Varhaug 0

ke Rosenzweig 0

thanaël Berthon 0

bin Frijns Rookie 0

Qin Hua Rookie 0

Last Saturday, at the Bahrain Internationalcircuit, Nathanaël Berthon, Sam Bird, KevinCeccon, Stefano Coletti, Daniël De Jong, TomDillmann, Kevin Giovesi, Rio Haryanto, FabioLeimer, Julián Leal, Simon Trummer and PålVarhaug were invited to race against eachother… on simulators at the F1 Game Zone!In front of the fans and media, they took eachother on during an epic race with Will Buxtoncommentating. Just like he would a few hours later, Fabiostarted from pole position, but he completelymessed up his start. Tom led for most of therace – “The brake assist is on, I’m just at thewhole time” he confessed with a smile, but asmall mistake in the nal laps sent him into

a spin. Rio was laughing his head off as heovertook the Frenchman. Behind the pair, Sammade an impressive comeback after a poor

start, a couple of spins and a crash. At thechequered ag, Rio was all smiles and wavingat the camera, but he was hit by a last minute10s penalty. Tom was thus declared the winner,his teammate Sam nishing second whilst Riohad to settle for third.

LET’S PLAY PRETEND!

WHOLE LOTTA LOVE

BEST BITS

There are six of them this season – although

Alexander Rossi has some GP2 Asia experience,and they know how challenging being a rookiein GP2 is, a Series focused on nding the bestyoung talents thanks to a very selective car.So, how does a rookie prepare before a raceweekend, especially if they don’t know thetrack? “The biggest thing nowadays is to workon simulators” Mitch Evans told us. “But comingto BIC, I knew the lines and roughly where thebraking zones are, but it’s always a bit differentwhen you get on track for the rst time.”

Robin Frijns agreed: “You can watch clips fromthe F1 races and look at the on-board cameras

too. But nothing replaces real life: you go intofree practice, you do as many laps as you canand you push to nd the limit. That’s why I spin.I always spin in free practice, just so you know!”he laughed.

“You can also look at some data from otherdrivers from years before,” added Daniel Abt,

“but the tyres are different this season so youknow it will not be the same. Reality is alwaysdifferent than data. You only have a thirty minutepractice, so you have to learn quickly. But that’swhat makes it interesting and a good challenge!”

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs noted: “We’re trying torace against people who know the track a lotbetter than we do. I want to win but I know it’shard when you’re a rookie. I’m trying to get themost from the team, the car and myself. I putpressure on myself more than the environment

puts pressure on me.

“We’re all here because we’re trying to be in F1.You’ve seen in the past that if you do well in GP2you’ll end up there. Pirelli tyres have changedthings a bit: no matter how good anyone is intheir rst year, it’s a lot harder than in the past.This is more a case of showing who is the bestdriver because the best driver is still going to winwith either half an hour or four hours of testing.”

Mitch concluded: “GP2 has always been astand-out feeder category to F1. It’s the closestmachines to the F1 cars, especially regardingthe tyres. It’s one of the biggest appeals of GP2.Nowadays you see the challenge of the Pirelli

tyres and the science behind it and I think GP2is the strongest category to be in. When I wasyounger I always said that I aimed to go to GP2.When GP3 rst started that was my goal. To winwas amazing and now to be in GP2 is fantastic.”

ROOKIE STYLE

GOODWEEK

BADWEEK

RUSSIANTIME

After just four races of existence,the Russian squad enjoyed an

emotional rst GP2 win in SakhirSprint Race thanks to Sam Bird’s

mature drive.

STEFANOCOLETTI

Four is the word! With fourpodium nishes in all four races,our Series leader has enjoyed agreat start to the season. Next

on the Monegasque’s list ofambitions: a feature race win.

FELIPE NASRTalk about consistency! The

Carlin ace has scored 12 pointsin all four races this season: henished 4th in Sepang Race 1

and 2nd in Race 2, and hescored the exact same results in

Sakhir. He is still ghting for thatelusive rst GP2 win though…

JAMES CALADONot the greatest race weekend

for last year’s best rookie inBahrain: the Brit struggled in

qualifying and in the feature race,but his ghting spirit showed in

the sprint race to nish fth.

BARWAADDAX TEAM

It’s been a tough season for theSpanish team so far who haveyet to score a point. Hopefully

the start of the European

campaign in Barcelona will be anew beginning for them.

LICK HERE FORMPLETE RESULTS

ROUND 2 RACE 2 REPORTS // CLICK HEREROUND 2 RACE 1 REPORTS // CLICK HERENEWS

RIVERS’ STANDINGS

#BuzzLightyear

Fabio Leimer crushed the rest of the

competition in Qualifying lapping the BIC0.993s faster than his closest rival.

#Nail-Biting

After a heart-stopping nal lap, SamBird crossed the nish line 0.08s aheadof Felipe Nasr. In other words, almostnothing!

#Strategy

Hard or Soft? That was the question beforeSaturday’s race. Just like in Formula One™tyre strategy plays an important part in the

race outcome in GP2.

#First

On his GP2 debut, Alexander Rossiscored a rst podium nish for CaterhamRacing this season in the Feature Race.

http://www.gp2series.com/Standings/Team/?seasonid=169

http://www.gp2series.com/Standings/Driver/?seasonid=169

http://www.gp2series.com/Standings/Driver/?seasonid=169

http://www.gp2series.com/Standings/Team/?seasonid=169



Foster the people

Pumped up Kicks

RIOARYANTO

2005 saw the debut of the GP2 Series™,opening in Imola as support for the San MarinoGrand Prix where pre-season favourite HeikkiKovalainen claimed the very rst win in theseries. As the season progressed the Ardendriver proved to be the man to beat, regularlyclaiming podiums and wins across Europe totop the standings as the teams broke for themid-season test at Paul Ricard.

Until that time ART’s Nico Rosberg had beenticking over with points nishes, but there hadbeen nothing to suggest that the Germanwould be a championship contender. First raceback, however, and his French team werequietly condent that they had turned a corner,and Rosberg duly claimed his rst victory onSunday with a strong drive in Magny Cours.

The win opened the oodgates and, althoughKovalainen also claimed a couple more

victories, the German arrived in Bahrain threepoints to the good after a more consistentscoring run. Rosberg increased his lead withpole position, with his rival next to him on thegrid when the lights went out. A safety car for anumber of stopped cars gave the Finn a riskypossibility for glory when he followed it back infor an early stop next time round, pushing himback to P20 but, crucially, in clear air.

ART brought Rosberg in when Kovalainen hadstormed to P8, and a conservative stop saw theGerman emerge just ahead of his rival. Luckilyteammate Alex Prémat was in unstoppableform: the Frenchman soon squeezed betweenthe pair to protect Rosberg and also took the

fastest lap, meaning that the title was goingto be over if the race nished with the Finn inP3. He had a moment of hope when Prémat’scar started smoking towards the end of the

race, but as the smoke cleared two laps laterRosberg rolled through the nal few laps tochampionship glory.

Sunday saw the pressure off, with Rosbergimperious as he sliced through the eld from P8for victory as Kovalainen spun into retirementat turn one, a disappointing nish to a strongchampionship run. The German topped offhis title run with the series’ rst ever doublewin, while teammate Prémat was just unableto get by Ernesto Viso for 2nd place, allowingScott Speed to claim third in the championshipdespite starting from the pitlane with his pointsfor fastest lap.

ROSBERG REIGNS IN SAKHIR

20SATURDAY (04) APRIL

A d r “ T G n t ” C s a D a / p r f o r c g i e r ( C r h m R c i g )

A DAY IN THE LIFE

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The Chinese Grand Prix saw LewisHamilton emulate teammate NicoRosberg’s efforts from last year in

Shanghai. While Rosberg was able totranslate pole into his rst F1 victory in2012, this year the Briton had to makedo with another podium nish behindAlonso and Räikkönen, albeit wellahead of his teammate who was forcedinto retirement with a car problem.

Romain Grosjean suffered from areappearance of the set-up problem

last seen in Malaysia, but neverthelesssalvaged P9 at the end of the race,nishing one spot ahead of NicoHülkenberg, who looked comfortableleading the race midway through beforestruggling in his nal stint. Both drivers

had a much better weekend than SergioPérez, who moved from P12 to P11after “probably the worst [qualifying]I ever had” and a number of on-trackincidents during the race.

Esteban Gutiérrez went one worse,however: an error while battling Pérezsaw him take Sutil and himself outat the hairpin. In comparison PastorMaldonado didn’t put a foot wrong allweekend, but the pace just wasn’t there:he nished one spot behind teammateValtteri Bottas in P14.

In the Caterham/Marussia battle JulesBianchi came out on top once again,although it was a close run thing: theFrenchman at-spotted his rst set oftyres and fell behind Charles Pic, butquick work in the pits saw his team push

him up to a P15 nish. Max Chilton wasunable to do anything about the pair,but managed to relegate Giedo van derGarde to last on track in P18.

Rosberg also claimed pole in Bahrain,but battles throughout the race tooktheir toll on his tyres, forcing the Germanto stop four times for P9 at the nish.Hamilton played the long game for astop less, and had enough tyres to pushup to P5 on the last lap.

Grosjean was untouchable in the raceafter an unlucky qualifying: clean andprecise, he turned P11 into a podium forthird to repeat his performance from last

year at the circuit. An aggressive drivesaw Pérez move up six places from thegrid to P6.

Hülkenberg didn’t have the car toachieve much: moving up two spots toP12 was probably a decent job (onespot behind Maldonado, with whomhe fought for much of the race), whileGutiérrez started from the back becauseof a penalty picked up in China, gotcaught up in a rst corner skirmish, andlimped home in P18.

Pic was able to make use of a majorupgrade to easily dispatch his rivals at

Marussia: he was ghting with the ToroRosso’s instead of his usual competitionwith a great drive to P14, while van derGarde picked up damage at the start toslump home in P21, just behind Bianchiand Chilton, with the Briton closing thegap to his more fancied teammate in the

desert.

HAMILTON ANDGROSJEAN ON F1 PODIUMS

Wake up to the sound of my alarm - SoulMusic - PDA by John Legend.

Breakfast - Plenty of fruit and juice andmaybe a pancake or 2... or 3 with syrup :-)

Leave hotel to go to the circuit.

Arrive at the circuit - let the games begin!

Pit stop practice to really wake me up - the team have me push the car. It is alreadysooo hot!

Prepare the cars for firing up and run a gearbox check.

Check the cars and that both systems plus the engine and gearbox are ready for therace while singing to Carlin’s garage music“Spice Girls Wannabe”.

Time for Set-up - This is the top secret part of my job and if I told you I would have to kill you! SORRY

A quick day dream about going back to thehotel and jumping in the pool - sadly not

going to happen…

LUNCH TIME! Trying to eat light, OOPS -mission failed, why is the food so good?

Engineering meeting with Humphrey, James &Patrick.

Drivers briefing: we discuss start procedures, lap performance and more topsecret information!

The cars and trollies prepare to go to theF1 pitlane.

Walk to the pitlane, it feels like it getslonger each time!

Pit lane opens, cars off to the grid and soam I. Check the data on Alexander’s car whostarts P7 (I also take a quick glance at the

grid girls!). Data checked, umberella holding time - always looking after our drivers.

Red lights out. I hope the 1st lap is incidentfree. Next port of call - pit board duty forAlexander.

Race finished. GOOD JOB GUYS. Podium forAlexander!

Engineering Debrief while the cars are still in Parc Fermé.

Parc Fermé opens: it’s time to prepare thecars for tomorrow’s race (long night ahead).

A bit more singing - This time INXS “Unbelieveable”.

Post race checks and drivers briefing.

HUNGRY!! Dinner time and once again I failmiserably to eat light!

Setting up the cars and doing all the pre-race checks - F.U.N “We are Young”.

We head back to the hotel. Damn the gym isclosed!

Cool off at the pool bar before passing outwith exhaustion.

Bedroom. I finally find time to text myfamily and relax in front of “Star WarsEpisode IV - Return of the Jedi”.

Probably sleeping in the most uncomfortable position ever with the computer still rolling the credits.



Prime HardOption Soft

Tyre performance is a crucial part of the

overall performance of the car. But it’snot just the performance of the tyre itselfthat is critical to a race outcome: also thestrategy employed.

The task for the teams each weekendis to match the characteristics of the

nominated tyres and the set-up properly,and use the right tyre at the right time.What the right time is will depend notonly on the meteorological and track

conditions but also on what everybodyelse is doing.

Although all the GP2 cars are identical,the individual set-up favoured by each

driver means that every car has differentcharacteristics.

One example is downforce. The lessdownforce applied, the more a car willslide through corners and the faster the

tyres will wear out – although it will befaster on the straights.

Suspension set-up is another crucial

parameter. Putting an aggressive camberon the car can improve performance

through high-speed corners, but canequally cause localised heat build-up

that damages the tyres and could affect

braking.

All these factors govern how long a tyrecan usefully stay on a car, so the rststep when formulating a strategy is to

understand the car. That information,normally collected in free practice, canthen be used to calculate a strategy that

will hopefully boost track position.

Any strategy also has to be exible. Notonly do drivers lose time when stuck intrafc, but this also increases tyre wearas the cars lose downforce and slidemore. So adjusting the strategy at thelast minute to bring a car out of a situation

where it is stuck in trafc – or there is asafety car – is often a good idea.

In Bahrain, there were a number ofdifferent strategies at work duringthe feature race. In particular thefrontrunners mostly chose to start on the

soft tyre, with some drivers further downthe grid electing to start on the hard tyre.This is so that they could drive a longer

rst stint and get in front of the driversrunning on the soft tyres during the rstpit stops.

As always when it comes to tyremanagement, it’s a question of strikingthe best balance between speed anddurability. Luckily the team engineersbenet from cutting-edge computerprogrammes that allow them to simulateand predict what the best strategieswould theoretically be. As we’ve oftenseen in the past though, theory andpractice can be two completely differentthings…

BARCELONA SPAIN

MAY, 10-11-12

TYRES CHOICE

Circuit de Catalunya4.655 km

GP2 SERIES™Race 1 Van der Garde (Caterham Racing)Race 2 Razia (Arden International)

GP3 SERIES™Race 1 Evans (MW Arden)Race 2 Daly (Lotus GP)

#yoursay

Sector 3

SpeedTrap

Sector 2

Sector 1

Start/Finish

offset 0.126km

@stef6489

@felipenasr

@caterhamgp2

@daniel_abt

@erikssonjimmy

@koiranengp

@gp3_ofcialLICK HERE TO ACCESSGP2 PADDOCK

@carlosainz

http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/GP2-Paddock/





CLICK HERE FOR MOREGP2 SERIES™ PHOTOS

CLICK HERE FOR MOREGP3 SERIES™ PHOTOS

When April, 18 _ 15:42WhereBahrain International Circuit, SakhirWho Stefano Coletti . Rapax,

Fabio Leimer . Racing Engineering

What Canon EOS-1D XEF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

100ISO•16mm

1/200 @ F5.0

When April, 04 _ 13:42WhereSilverstone Circuit, EnglandWho Facu Regalia . ART Grand Prix

What Canon EOS-1D XEF50mm f/1.4 USM

1000ISO• 50mm

1/160 @ F4.0



Rossi roars to podium on GP2 debut Valtteri Bottas nished a strong 13thin front of his Williams F1 teammatePastor Maldonado at Round 3 in China.It was a nightmare weekend for EstebanGutiérrez, the Mexican failed to make itto Q2 and in the race he crashed intothe back of Adrian Sutil, retired and wasissued with a grid penalty.

Bahrain saw Gutiérrez start last, suffer adamaged front wing after contact on the

opening lap, the Sauber F1 drivereventually nishing 18th. It wasa smoother weekend for Bottas,he made it through to Q2, out-performing Maldonado to qualify15th and nishing 14th on race day.

It was a great weekend in GP2 forour GP3 graduates. The FeatureRace saw ve graduates place inthe top ten with Stefano Coletti

second and Alexander Rossi

pocketing an impressive podium

on his maiden GP2 weekend.Six graduates made the top tenin the Sprint Race, with Coletticollecting his fourth rostrum

in four races and taking the

GP2 Series™ lead. Happy menwere Adrian Quaife-Hobbs andDaniel Abt both scoring their rstpoints of their GP2 career.

PRE-SEASON TEST REPORTS CLICK HERE

The nal ofcial pre-season test was held ata bitterly cold Silverstone. The temperaturesmay have been below zero at times but theaction on track was red-hot with Trident’sDavid Fumanelli posting a laptime almostve seconds quicker than the previous GP3

lap record set in 2012 with the GP3/10 car.Over 8,394 laps were completed with thesecond generation car. Now we count downthe days until we rock up in Barcelona forRound 1 baby!

Reigning GP3 Series Champion Mitch Evanswas an eagle eyed visitor the Silverstonepaddock for pre-season testing, The Kiwifresh from his fantastic debut in GP2 enjoyedthe sight (and sound) of 27 GP3 cars andadmits he will be keeping a close on theSeries.

“The noise is mega! It was a great opportunity to drive the GP3 car in Estoril last year and I must say a big thanks to Pirelli for that. The new car is really good for the championship

and already making a positive impression.I am excited to see what happens and develops in GP3 this season and I can’t wait for both GP2 and GP3 to nish the year in style at Abu Dhabi.”

Randy Orton

WWE Wrestler. SinceI was a child I havealways liked him and

I like his tattoos, he’svery cool. I also likeRey Misteryo.

I O V A N N I ENT U R I N I

M A NU E L EON Z I N I

Goku

Cartoon character.He’s a superherofrom another planetwith special powers.He never loses his

, he can kill enemies butill choose to save livesad. He’s a good person.

A V I DU M A N E L L I

Bart Simpson

I like the fact he isalways happy andcheeky. He’s veryclever and alwaysnds the solution to

ever trouble he is in.

Fumanelli 4.9 secondsfaster in new GP3 car

Mitch: GP3/13 car is mega

# S NOW- JOK ELight snow fell upon Silverstone during testing:Max temp: 3 degrees. The drivers sat by heaters in their thermals...Brrrrr!

# M R C O N S I S T E N T

Tio Ellinas pos ted times in the top two in

three

o f the four sessions for Marussia Manor Racing

during the Silvers tone tes t.

#C H E E S E

The o fcial dri ver-por traits were sho t a t tes ting:

some mean ‘n’ mood y, some all smiles. Does

m y hair look ok? (Said b y the boys)!

#T I CK-T OCKIt’s just two weeks now until GP3 Ser ies™ kicks of f in Bar celona f or Round 1 of the season: Excited much? W e ar e!



DINO ZAMPARELLI

2011 saw the second season of the GP3Series come down to the wire with a pitchedbattle between ART teammates Valtteri Bottasand James Calado: the Briton scored moreconsistently throughout the year, but the Finnroared into contention with wins in Germany,Hungary and Spa to head the championshipwhen the grid arrived in Monza.

A dramatic qualifying session saw the top tensplit by less than half a second, with the titlerivals forming up on the grid side by side in 5thand 6th position after a torrid battle for the topspot. The Finn made a great start when the

lights went out to move up two places to thirdat the rst chicane, with Calado stuck lookingfor a way out of the trafc just behind.

Bottas inevitable rise continued with adramatic, three-wide move for second beforenally claiming the lead two laps later. Caladowas equally resolute, forcing his way throughthe eld and claiming P2 just as a safety carperiod provided the quiet before the storm.

With three laps to go the eld was releasedonce again, and Calado analysed histeammate for two laps before striking: Bottasdefended robustly at the rst chicane beforethe pair ran side by side up to the second,where Bottas held Calado just wide enough

that the Briton had to concede the ght. Thepair ran nose to tail to the ag: the win wasBottas’ and, with it, the title.

Goo Goo Dolls

Iris

Finnish Delight

I have “Let there be Rock”written on because of my

love of rock music which is

quite personal to me. Thelines at the top/front I thinkare quite different and make

it easier to recognise me.

It’s yellow because ofmy surname of course!

I let the designer be

creative and I wasa big fan of having

grafti as I think thatlooks very cool. I liketo have an unusual

design.

My helmet is in memory ofWelsh driver Tom Pryce whowas killed racing; my father

had the same helmet. Onehalf of the helmet represents

my Greek nationality andone half Swiss. The Welshdragon is also tribute to Tom

and matches my dragon

tattoo on my chest.

PATRIC NIEDERHAUSER

NICK YELLOLY

ALEXFONTANA

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The Insider 60