UKAC Season 15 F1 1975 - Round 10 - Silverstone - Feb 12

[IbnSolmyr]

Do we know if we go on Nords or Nords '67 next week plz ?

[vva_avv]

Well, The race was interesting. In qualy there was only one slot for 4-wheeled Tyrrel. So, hello again P34!  

Oh the irony, the P34 was first driven at Silverstone in '75  

My apologies to Fab for T1, i guess i should have left more space for him. Was concentrated on guys to the right and forgot about left flank, sorry mate!
5th place after 1st lap.
Then there were nice fights with Maxime and Stefan, i tried to attack correctly. 3rd place is good result for P34.
But i wont really miss it next races.
The truck is smooth and steady, but apparent lack of aero effectiveness and way too low suspension (bottoming every possible place!) makes this P34 mod far from ideal.
Picnic, please make 3 slots for Tyrrels if possible!
Grats to unbeatable guys at P1 and P2! Thx all for race!

[Stefan aka Postal]

Had a couple of off's during qualy as the car behaved much twistier on low fuel load. Had to use the overtime to set a proper lap time. With a 3 row grid it put me on the inside line on the second row for the start.

Had a nice first few laps with Maxime trying to overtake left and right. Kept a safe rythem and tried to save a bit of tyre as i kept seeing Maxime and VVA in the mirrors.
With some 10 minutes to go VVA was on my case and we duked it out until the finish. He was slightly faster and as my rears where shod it only took a little wobble on the throttle to let him get by.
Now it was my turn to try and attack, but he kept it clean to the finish. Nice racing, thanks guys!

Last lap is missing somehow. Will upload that later;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4VeOyt36qA&t=95s

[Mark J]

I couldnt believe i had my second duff result in a row by having a repeat 1st lap double-off  I've had a really clean good season (other than the two discos), always running in the top 4 without errors but now two bad races...bah!

Qually was a great fight with Fabri and vva, as we kept exchanging faster 1:21 times (whilst the front two did 1:20's  ) but in the end i bagged the third place front row slot alongside our two aliens.

Race start was decent, 3-abreast heading down to T1. I really struggle to hear my own engine/gears/tyres now when the whole pack is accelerating off the line (not so great Rift-S headphones!) so its hard to rely on your senses for the feeback noises, but slotted in anyway right behind Max's gearbox. I followed very closely right down to that clumsy T3 right hander glued to his six, but i think he sensed i may try and flick out of his airstream and so he made a very quick darting manouvre to block the inside right. However it threw me for a split second and i darted left to avoid hitting him but that took me just wide enough to go off line and with stone cold mediums i just understeered straight off onto the grass    i was gutted !!  and had to watch the whole grid sail past me  So of course i then over-drove the car for the next few laps and had two oversteer moments which again cost me a few more seconds. By lap 3 i think i was yet again 20+ seconds behind the lead cars for the 2nd race in a row 
But like Charade, i knew i had top 3 pace so it was a case of getting my head down and cutting back up through the field. Which i did, right up to catching Stefan and vva having a great battle up ahead of me for 3rd place ! with about 5mins remaining. I thought 'i can do this' and grab a late 3rd if i can get past these two fighting hard. But literally as soon as i got within 1 sec of them my engine let go!    Thats the first time thats happened to me in years of AC ! It was actually more like fuel starvation in the way it started to flutter and feather under acceleration (just like my Integrale does on occassion!) so i instantly thought i'd run low on fuel but it wasnt that. It was very frustrating but i just had to watch them two ahead for the last few laps as i could no longer close on them. I had been over-revving the nuts off the car for most of the race so i guess the engine sustained too much wear/damage.    They deserved their 3rd and 4th places anyway 

Finished 5th, felt like dropped points but had a good race with plenty of action.

[vva_avv]

Stefan very nice vid, thx a lot. P34 is champ in nomination "sexy thing" 

[IbnSolmyr]

That race was promised to be quite a tough one for me, and it eventually has been.

My pace was very bad. Then I completely forgot to ask my team crew to mount the medium compounds before the race. I can imagine them laughing in the pitlane while I was trying to concentrate on a "hopeless but solid race" trying to save as much points as possible.

Actually it probably wasn't that serious as what I lost in the end of the race was undeserved positions. First few laps had been quite easy though as soft get horny faster, which allowed me to reach 4th position and even battle for 3rd. I might have saved 5th or at least 6th position if I wasn't a damn idiot : seeing Mark coming behind, I've been afraid to have a tough moment to reach the end and missed my braking point at the worst circuit place for me, ended in a spin and even a contact with a wall, trying to finish the loop.... What a noob. 

Then even fevered Fab was closing so I let him pass immediately because I didn't want to see his virus jump from his car into mine.  Or I had rear tires completely dead !

7th twice in a row. John Surtees is quite angry these days.. 

[MaxVeloce]

How come I dont have the magic medium tyre that Mark invented. Share the love guys




I had a rubbish qualify and start to the race,  really not sure what to say to that but I know it was me under-performing  .  Its most bizzare as I jumped on the server for practise 30mins before qually and decided to try a qually run as I'd only practised with higher fuel + hard tyres previously.  Immediately the car felt great and I was on it, on the 3rd flying lap I punched in a lovely 1m20.1 and there was maybe a bit more there.  Happy I had a good qually setup and deciding not to overdo it I then swapped back to race setup and ran a few laps. It all felt good and the pace was OK, so I took a break until qually started.

Then it all went pete tong, I started my qually run but my focus wasn't there and I couldn't better a 1m20.48  , meanwhile Tim is matching my practise time and eventually slightly beating it, DOH!

The race was no better, I drove like a noob the first 10 laps, making stupid mistake after mistake.  Lucky for me I started to drive better and was about maintaining the gap, then Tim decided to drop it exiting Stowe and I caught to within a second of him. From then it got better and we had a great run to the flag for the last 20 laps, swapping tenths of a second lap after lap, though I never quite got close enough to try a pass.

[Mark J]

we knobbled your tyres while you took a break, put a set of winters on it 

at least you are giving Tim someone to worry about, he's been able to coast to the flag all season 

[IbnSolmyr]

we knobbled your tyres while you took a break, put a set of winters on it 

at least you are giving Tim someone to worry about, he's been able to coast to the flag all season 

By the way, we can celebrate the unofficial Tim's championship win yet, he's mathematically untouchable now.  Congrats to you Tim !

[MaxVeloce]

at least you are giving Tim someone to worry about, he's been able to coast to the flag all season 

I'm going to look on the positive side. I definitely made a nice step forward with the car setup this week, and my best laps are on pace...

[Mark J]

I definitely made a nice step forward with the car setup this week, and my best laps are on pace...

prey tell for the rest of us grease-monkeys    i tried all sorts to make the car quicker here. Definitely improved it but not enough to get in the 1:20 time.    In fact at the last minutes of qually i even added 1 notch to my rear wing as it seemed to make me a few tenths quicker than my edgy 6-3 wing config.  I had been running 5-2 in my practise sessions.

[Fabri Fibra]

I was undecided until the last moment whether to do this race because of the high fever that haunts me for days. I didn't pract in the previous days and when I tried a few laps before the race it was terrible, I had difficulty synchronizing my feet on the pedals.
The qualifying and the race, however, were better than I expected.

I started 4th, unfortunately at the first corner I had no room to turn in and ended up on the grass, I rejoing last. I remounted several positions. I had a first duel with Mark, but unfortunately he ended up in a half spin and we had a little contact. This caused a bit of understeer more on my Ferrari.
After a few laps, we took positions again and Mark was again on my tail. This time I preferred a lesser defense because I was starting to get hot and I preferred to avoid risks, moreover he had a better pace than mine.
During the last lap I was able to gain another position, overtanking Maxime (that was without tyres).

Ultimately a fun race with many overtaking and where I limited the damage.

[MaxVeloce]

prey tell for the rest of us grease-monkeys    i tried all sorts to make the car quicker here. Definitely improved it but not enough to get in the 1:20 time.    In fact at the last minutes of qually i even added 1 notch to my rear wing as it seemed to make me a few tenths quicker than my edgy 6-3 wing config.  I had been running 5-2 in my practise sessions.

Did you try 5-3 or 4-2 wing combos, aero is all about balance!

Didn't really do anything special to the Macca,  just needed more time in the car to work out better settings.  Mainly it was way too soft at the rear causing it to fall over and exit the track backwards. I've no idea if its the same for the other cars...