On Track For A Legacy (Formula 1)

Pre-season testing days

(AJ's P.O.V.)
In about one week the first Grand Prix of the 2023 season will start in Bahrain. And the familiar voice of Crofty will yell out "it's lights out and away we go!". But before that happens, everyone worries about the testing days. Three consecutive testing days will be held for the teams. On these days the teams are allowed to drive their cars for the last time, to see if they met their requirements and ideas of a perfect car.

Day 1 of testing:

Although the team hadn't schedueled me to drive the car untill the second day. I still was at the track to watch my team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Arriving in the garage I saw that our mechanics were applying the car with a fluorescent paint powder. Or known as flow-vis. This will visualizes the aerodynamics of the car, so that the actual airflow past the car can be compared with the data from the computer. "What do you think, AJ, does it suit the car?" Sebastian questioned stepping beside me, "no" I simply told him "it looks like someone did a bad graffiti job on it" I remarked back with a chuckle. He laughed at my responce and agreed. "Alright, it's time to go to work" Sebastian then said and turned to me. After the 2022 season had finished and me and Sebastian got to know each other more. We had made up our own handshake for greetings, goodbyes and goodlucks. As Sebastian drove the car out the garage I walked to the screens that stood in the garage box. I put on a headset and watched Sebastian do his laps, while listening to his feedback of the car. After a couple of laps Seb got called back to the garage to fix the DRS systems which wasn't opening fully.

The afternoon soon rolled in and I took the opportunity to take some photos together with our media person, Allison. Photography was a hobby of mine and when I had stopped racing, I often went to race tracks to take pictures of the racers. I stood by the pitwall and whenever Seb passed took some pictures of him and the car.

Day 2 of testing:

Now it was my turn to have the car for the full day. But I had one difference than Seb had with his test drive. I had the aero(dynamic) rake on my car, instead of the flow-vis paint which Sebastian had. These rakes are sensors designed to measure off-body flow steuctures. It basically paints a picture of the flow structures that are coming off things like the front wing and the front wheels. The data is send back to the aerodynamics team, who then use the data to optimise the car further. I drove the car out the garage and waited for my crew to give me green light for a safe release. "Enjoy your first lap back, AJ" I heard Seb tell me over the onboard radio. The realisation of being back inside a race car had not settled in. But when I came closer to the pit-exit, I felt my heart beating in my throat. Excitement and nerves ran through my body. I hadn't felt this sensation since forever and I realized that I had missed this feeling. I took a deep breath in and then breathed out. "Alright, Senna. Let's see if we haven't lost our touch" I told myself and looked to see if I could merge onto the racetrack. No other car was nearby so I could. First turn, a right, then almost right after turn two and three. I cleared the turns with ease and my nerves settled so I pushed my gas pedal in. I felt the G force in my body when the Audi began to take up its speed as we went down the straight towards turn 4, the first DRS sector. "Easy on the brakes. We are not racing yet" I heard my racing engineer Jack tell me, "copy that" I replied. Turn 5, where the second sector of the track begins. Turn 6,7,8 went by easy. Although I felt a bit of understeer in turn 8, but it wasn't to bad. Turn 9 down towards turn 10 which is one of the difficult corners on Bahrein. I noticed the other drivers go wide in turn 10. So I braked a bit earlier and succesfully kept it on the ideal racing line. Then down the straight again, the second DRS sector. Turn 11 and 12, which is basically a very big S, where I could almost go full speed, only letting go of the gas sometimes. Turn 13, third sector and down the straight to the last two corners. When going over the finish line I wa sinformed about my time. 1:37.001, not a bad time in my opinion, if you consider my time away from the tracks. Sebastian had a time of 1:36.256. Much faster but I couldn't really care. I was just happy to be back on the track again. "The DRS went open like it should be" Jack told me and I agreed with him, "any other problems you found?". "Had a bit of understeer in turn 8" I told him, "copy that, we'll take a look at it". The laps that followed I was told I could test the car a bit and so I did. I managed to get over Seb's lap, a 1:36.210, making the team happy.

Day 3 of testing:

"Alright, AJ. We are going to do a practice start from the starting grid. Please line up behind Sainz's ferarri" Jack told me, "copy that" I replied and parked on my spot behind Carlos his ferarri. Practise starts look like a regupar start, but the cars don't go all in one go. They are allowed to drive after the car infront of them have left. My eyes looked up as I saw the lights turn on and then go out. In normal conditions this would indicate the race starts. But because this is a practise no one is allowed to move before the two front cars. But the lights confused a couple of the drivers and Carlos in front of me and Lewis behind me both drove off. But the two stopped when realising none of the others drove off. "That was a bit chaotic" I chuckled as I drove off after Carlos was out of my way. After a couple more laps, I had handed the car over in the afternoon to Sebastian.

Published: 24th of March 2023

Flow-vis on the Williams car

aero(dynamic) rake on the Williams car

The Bahrain International Circuit