RaceRevo

I received an email few days ago from Team Lotus that I made the list for a pit tour on Thursday. Incredible! Knowing the fact that F1 pit garage is a restricted area for photographers and journalists alike. It is on rare occasion that this opportunity will present itself in the future, so I fired away a confirmation email and I’ve got to say being there looking at things from behind the scenes was quite an experience.

Mabel Dautzenberg, our tour guide picked me up at the SIC Welcome Center. At the time, the weather seems fine save for only a few minutes, and then on our way to the hospitality suite, it rained. We were literally running for cover. Mabel called the crew for my VIP pass and a Lotus branded umbrella. Just for your info, the pass above is valid for the whole F1 rounds and for that reason I was not able to keep it as a souvenir. And the umbrella, it was cool, you might like one for the upcoming race. However, despite the umbrella, nothing can stop Malaysian rain from getting me wet. But that besides the story, anyway Mabel brought me to the hospitality suite so that I can warm a bit before going on the tour. They served me coffee and it was very nice.

Sitting next to my table was Karun Chandhok. He’s having an animated discussion with four guys not familiar to me. Scene such as this is a routine for F1 drivers. They spent huge amount of time discussing and listening. Not the best part of being race drivers mind you. A thought for us comes to mind, we don’t often see this part of the deal, hence we never quite get it when drivers fret and rant so much about their careers. Isn’t racing expensive cars fun? yes, minus all the details that needs to be ironed out to dig up a perfect weekend.

While Karoun Chandouk chose to have his meetings inside the hospitality suite, Heikki decided it is wise to acclimatized to Malaysian downpour. Nah, I’m just making that up, maybe since it’s raining outside and there was no media, no photographers outside, it was a calm and cool place to have discussions.

My first stop, tyres briefing. The Pirelli wet weather and intermediates tyres are untested. The tyre engineer says Sepang could be its first outing. Everyone in the paddock has specifications given by Pirelli on how to use them, but practical and theory are two different things. However, it is good for Team Lotus as this will even out the field.

The engineer goes on to explain some of the details of the Pirelli’s tyre construction. The sidewalls of the tyres are made of plastic material while the main contact path is made of rubber. The yellow line that separates between the sidewall and main contact path is the boundary of both materials. I never knew this before. I thought all of the tyres are made of rubber.

These guys are two experts on tyres. A moving dictionary. Whatever questions I throw, they smile and they talk. One of the infos given was, the dry tyre warmer temperatures is set to 80 degrees Celsius for Sepang due to the hot track, it will climb to optimum temperatures at around 90 degrees. In Melbourne, it is set at 90 due to cold weather. The optimum temperatures differ from track to track.

Next stop, the composite department. Here is where they prepare everything of the chassis. As we know, these stuffs are made from carbon fiber. Wing element, brakes cover, etc. These elements were given the sponsors stickers. The most incredible thing here is perhaps the weight of these produced materials. It’s extremely light, it feels like plastics, I’m not quite sure how these materials can withstand the heat and the crash impact. It appears out of this world.

This is one of the pieces from the wing element if I recall correctly. It started life as plain cloth and with the bonding of multiple layers it takes the desired shape. One of the advantages of carbon fibers is the ability to form complex shapes. Well above image is a testament to that. No joining or welding, just a nice one piece of structure ready to execute its intended purpose.

Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovailanen composite schedule. Well, everything is organized here. A kind of checklist made to ensure smooth operation and maximum efficiency. This is of paramount importance so that everyone is on the same page on the task.

Welcome to the electronics department. Here, components for cars such as sensors are kept. The department also provides the drivers and engineers with communications system. In the electronics department lies one of the most important tools to spy on everything which is the telemetry.

Before it was a mechanical era, nowadays it is an electronics and aerodynamics era. You may not see electronics engineer at work in the race, but rest assured they work as hard as the drivers behind the scene. With thousands of parameters to monitor from the sensors, an engineer has to stare all day long at the moving graphs and numbers.

In order to best determine what Team Lotus needed to do to respond to opponent’s strategy or sudden change of situation that arises, telemetries or data gathering system is used. The data is transferred real time via sensors on the car. The amount of data is tremendous; it will be displayed on multiples of monitors. Electronics Engineers will interpret all of these inputs and decide what to do next. The tough decision will need the green light from the Chief Technical Officer, in this case, Mike Gascoyne.

Team Lotus uses Renault engine this year. The deal comes with technical support as well. Several Renault engineers will be present at all races to assist with data interpretation and decision making.

A special room to store and assemble the electronic devices. What a cool bunch of guys, thanks for stopping the work to pose for this shot. Before we move on, I must commend the level of professionalism in Team Lotus. Everything is tidy, clean and shiny. Their tools, apparels and the work place.

“We Pray for Japan”. This is the human side of F1 paddock. F1 is big with millions of followers, and having a human statement made in this sport is very important in order to help boost the donation for the recent tsunami in Japan. On other story, I don’t know much about other teams, but Team Lotus crew is very friendly and humorous. We share jokes and laughter at a hectic Grand Prix weekends. To be honest, in my experience, this is a rare quality.

Pile of boxes only for the telemetry equipments. A logistic nightmare. Speaking of logistics, the fees are partly subsidized. Mabel explains to me that all F1 teams only pay for a cost price on logistics. It is a cost cutting effort by the FIA and the teams welcome this effort with open arms.

Up close looks at one of the screens, there is no input yet as Lotus cars both were in the garage still being assembled. Below the monitor are the communication channels. If the engineers wanted to contact Heikki, he can just press Heikki’s button.

The office of the drivers, well one of the restricted area. We don’t want to disturb the drivers at a race weekend. PR for the drivers is mostly over at this stage. Full concentration on preparing for the race and qualifying, that’s their priority at this stage.

However, I manage to catch a glimpse of Heikki Kovailanen hurrying for a discussion. He managed a minute for a photo session with one of the tour participants before leaving in a rush.

We tune in on satellite dishes and watch the likes of Vettel pull in a big gap to the rest of the field and probably have a notion that we only require good drivers to achieve things, however this could not be farther from the truth. Formula One is a team sport and with the advent of technology, this thrust interdependence to even greater heights. Let me put it this way, no driver can win without having a great team around him. In the past, engineer’s presence is rarely felt. You go to an amateur race event, it is hard to pin point who does what and who is who. In F1, it is of importance that specialization is adopted. In this case, Engineers even have their own room, a place where they can plan and have their eyes on everything.

Next stop, the engine department. However no picture was allowed since there is an issue with Intellectual Property of Renault. CEO Riad Asmat explains why the restriction was put in place. The gearbox and the engine was a sight to behold, so sorry that I’m unable to share it with our readers. Well, moving on to the steering wheel. The top lever is gear flappy pedal while below is the clutch pedal both left and right. Mabel gave me the green light to handle the wheel. I can tell you the flappy pedals feel very tactile and solid. It makes a “click” sound whenever I shifted it up and down. If you ever use “logitech momo” wheel on PC, it is something comparable save for a special level quality wise.

This is the most important interface for the drivers without doubt. Not only to steer the cars from the steering wheel but everything on the car could be changed as well. The brakes, the engine mapping, fuel economy of the engine, KERS, DRS, radio and many more things. It is a PlayStation joystick on drugs.

Coming to the end of my tour, the garage area. This where the works on Heikki’s and Jarno’s cars take place. The floor is wiped and clean every time the car is out. According to Mabel, this is done in view of the fact that if something were to fall off the car, the crew would immediately see it.

To conclude my tour, I believe that the spotlight of Formula One is always on the cars or drivers but whatever or whoever emerge the victor on Sunday is partly a result of dedicated crew who sweat blood day and night in the world of numbers, lines, graphs, statistic, etc in order for the drivers to attain confidence in the car even if it means only few tenths of a second faster.

Editorial : Mu’az Zakaria

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