Pippa Mann – Barcelona
Barcelona this weekend – the last round of the 2008 World Series by Renault Championship, and for me personally, it was also the end of an era. Two years in World Series with P1 Motorsport, and four years in total including my FR 2.0 years with the Renault family. Also, with my move to America looming for 2009, possibly my last race in Europe for some time.
My team mate for the 2008 season Geido Van der Garde was in China for most the of the weekend for the first round of the GP2 Asia series, only flying back on Sunday to try and run in Sunday’s race. This meant that for most of the weekend I was flying solo as the only entry from P1 Motorsport. In racing terms this can be quite difficult, as it means over the course of the race weekend, there is no comparable data from the other car, and no one else’s opinion on the set-up of the car. Now as Giedo and I have both been running different set-ups in the second part of this year, that wasn’t so much of an issue. The more pressing issue was that my car would be the sole chance for P1 to score points in the team championship, as we were desperately trying to finish the year still in the top three – having actually headed it for most of the season.
During the Friday testing, it looked like things were pointing in the right sort of direction – the car was handling pretty well and the times were good enough to keep me between 10th and 15th place on the timing sheets. We also had a good set of data for Barcelona from the pre-season test there at the start of the year, and everyone went to bed on Friday night feeling positive.
However qualifying had other ideas – as has happened so many times this year! Or rather I should say that the Spanish weather had other ideas, because on Saturday morning it poured down over the Circuit de Catalunya, spreading a greasy film over the circuit. As I was going to be out in the second group on circuit, the chances were even higher the track would be drying by the time I took to the track. This meant instead of putting a full wet set-up on the car, the decision was taken to largely leave it alone and just make a few minor tweaks.
In principle this was obviously a very good idea, and a very good strategy. In reality however, about one lap into qualifying I knew we had gone the wrong way. The track may not have looked very wet, there may not have been much spray, but to drive it was like driving on ice. The lap times were 20 seconds off dry times, which is what we would normally expect in very wet conditions, not damp conditions. And with the set-up direction we had chosen, this meant I was unable to generate the required heat in my tyres. No heat equals no grip, and no grip equals a slow lap time.
In Race One, I went for the sensible option – trying to pick up places a bit later in the race and stay out of trouble at the beginning. Luckily, it was the right choice, and over the first two or three laps about four or five cars ran into each other and had spins on the slippery surface. By the time the first safety car came out on lap four, I was already up into about 14th position, having started 23rd. Slowly I made my way up into 12th place, and I was on the back of the cars in 10th and 11th place the whole second half of the race, but as is so often the case in aero-dependant cars I just couldn’t quite get close enough to really make a serious move on either of them. Trying to catch the two ahead and them defending themselves only makes the whole group of cars slower, and we were caught by Alcaraz. On the very last lap of the race, Alcaraz out-braked himself, diving up the inside of me going into the second last corner, and ran completely over the tarmac area on the other side of the chicane. He cut the corner and as he was going through it so fast he overtook the slower car who had been in front me as well – gaining the positions.
As those of you who watched the F1 race from Spa this year will know, this isn’t allowed. I was unconcerned as I just assumed the place would be given back to me post race, and Alcaraz would be penalised. Three hours later, I was finally called back into the stewards office and told that Alacaraz would be given a grid drop of four places for tomorrow’s race, but would be allowed to keep the places he had gained today. This means I was classified as finishing 13th rather than 12th.
For Sundays race the track was dry, and the weather was sunny and warm again, just as it had been in testing. Giedo arrived fresh off a plane from China, and would also start the race – but unfortunately from last on the grid.
The team decided to get both me and Giedo through the field, we should opt to change all four tyres in the mandatory pitstop, which might lose us time in the pitlane but would ultimately give us more pace on the circuit. For the first half of the race, it looked as though the strategy wouldn’t quite work. The times were not bad, but not quite good enough to be really making enough of an impact to gain the gap needed to change the extra tyres. As other people made their pitstops, and I stayed out on the same tyres, the times started to look less and less good. In hindsight we could have come in a few laps sooner, but as everyone else around me stopped, I did actually get to lead a lap of a World Series race for the first time!
The P1 boys did a great four tyre pit-stop, and I re-joined the track in 15th place, four car lengths behind the car in 14th. The new tyres were so good I was able to overtake him on my first flying lap, around the outside into the first corner. That was one of the overtaking moves I’m proud of from this year – it was a good one! I was also able to drive around the next car like he was standing still, and he immediately spun off trying to keep up with my new tyres. The lap time across the line was three tenths off the fastest lap of the race, and the handling of the car on the new tyres was fantastic.
Although the position was disappointing, (I finished 13th, no more ground made up) and I was disappointed not to score any points on my final WS weekend, it was hard to be disappointed with the way I drove. In this game, you’re only as good as your last race, so at least in my last race in WS, people might say – “well, maybe she didn’t get the result because of what happened to her in qualifying, but my god she was fast!”
As Ricky Bobby would say in the film Tallegdaga Nights, “I just wanna go fast!”
Yours Pippa