I was working at Silverstone this last weekend - and spent most of it in
the pits. As well as the International Touring Cars (VERY fancy bits of
hardware!) there were the F3000 and Formula Opel single seaters. Now
both of these are one-make chassis, tyres and engine formula - where
the driver is meant to be the main factor.
What struck me was that the wing settings they were using didn't seem to
vary. I don't know what Indycars are like, but in practice it's not "XX
degrees" the settings, but "Third notch" - and there were probably only
10-15 positions altogether on the rear. But I didn't see anyone alter
their rear wing settings from first practice to race start. And only one
adjustment made by one Formula Opel driver to a front wing setting.
Walking up and down, it seemed that all the teams were using the rear
wing setting as well (didn't check every one, but all I looked at were
the same).
So - Formula Opel is a fairly modest budget (in motor-racing terms!!!)
"starter" series for learning slicks-and-wings, and F3000 a BIG-money
high-powered series meant to be a "feeder" into F1, etc. And apparently
the wing settings are pretty well sorted before a wheel is turned -
presumably from computer models and/or previous experience. On the day,
it was the suspension settings that most of the adjusting was done on.
Now think about what most of us sim-racers do. Whether jealously
guarded, partially or fully shared in our setups it's the wing settings
and perhaps gear ratios that are the most important apparently - it's
what we all fiddle with mainly - no? But watching these teams, its the
stuff in GP2's Advanced 1 & 2 settings - springs, dampers, spacers, etc
that they were adjusting.
We all race ICR2, GP2 with fixed chassis etc (ie same game) - and many
claim their settings are only any good for them because of their style
of driving, etc. But in a whole bunch of up-and-coming and heading-for-
the-top drivers, style etc mattered for suspension settings, but not for
wings apparently. Interesting.....
Cheers!
---
* RM 1.3 U0414 * Aibohphobia (n.): the fear of palindromes.
In GP2, I gained one second at Monaco working only on anti roll bars and
dampers. All of the settings are equally important, IMO.
--
Nicola Salmoria
