Chapter 7

Fast Friday, as they call it these days.  We’re getting extra boost.  Everybody else is as well, so we don’t really expect to close the gap.  If we do, we do.  If we don’t, we don’t.  We’re concerned about us and about our program.  Our job is not to worry about the things outside of our control, but to focus on those things that we can control and improve.  We’ll gladly accept the extra boost (and we’d love to keep it for the race), but apart from that, it’s business as usual.  Honestly, we’re pretty sick of hearing about it, so our de facto answer, as suggested by team principal Jason Peters, to the query of “Do you guys think you’ll get more boost?” is “We don’t need more boost.  We just need more cowbell!”  Perhaps some enterprising fans can seize on this thought? 

So, turbo boost, activate!  We’ll take it.  It’s always better and more fun to go faster.  Taking to the track for the first time on the day at 1:50pm, on a beautiful mid-May Indiana day, Jean Alesi attempts to stretch the legs of the FP Journe Watches #64, hoping to post his best laps of the month.  On his first run, we see a lap over 206mph, and then over 208mph.  Not there yet.  On his second run, which commenced at 2:06pm, Jean clicks off a lap over 209mph, and then two laps over 210mph.  He’s getting there.  Twenty minutes later, he’s out and right up over 209mph, exceeds 210mph on the next lap, posts his fastest speed of the month to date on his third lap (211.580), and rounds off the run with another lap in excess of 211mph.  However, since others are also boosting their top speeds, we’re not yet closing the gap.  On a positive note, his fastest lap was most definitely run alone, with no tow.  

We round out this session and return our Lotus-powered machine to the garage.  It only took Jean 14 laps to accomplish each part of the program that had been designed for the first track session of the day.  There’s still wing to take out of the car, and a bit of understeer in the car.  Overall, it was a good session, as Jean and the Fan Force United team keep pushing for small gains.  Word around the pit is that the soft limiter might be kicking in a bit low, generating a not insignificant amount of horsepower.  These are the types of things that you can learn and quickly overcome if you are running a large number of cars.  It seems that there is something in the software that keeps Jean from being able to do what he wants when it comes to gearing and shifting.  It’s one of those things that is out of our hands.  Identifying it is the first step.  We hope that solving it comes later.  We’re confident that if we keep working, the solution will be forthcoming, and we’re thrilled to be able to participate in the development.  Not only do racers want to race, but racers also want to have a hand in developing engines.  Naturally, wverybody understands that there’s a sense of satisfaction that comes from being a part of the story of the underdog, especially if the underdog eventually (sometime down the road) takes a bite out of the big dogs, and you get to be a part of the chomping.

Re-emerging from the garage, the team returns to the track at about 4:30pm for their second session of the day.  It’s hot.  It may be the hottest that it has been since the track opened for practice.  Assuredly, the track temperature is approaching 130 degrees, and there is not a cloud in the sky.  A light breeze blows toward to the northwest.  The order of the day now is simulating qualifying runs.  In the first of these, which commenced at 4:36pm, Jean posts laps above 211mph.  It’s good to see him consistently near his top speeds to this point.  He does this on what are extremely used tires, with what is described as “a pretty good push” in the car.  Gearing and rev limiter work has been done.  With the car trimmed, we need to be able to bump ourselves up and ease up on the self-imposed restrictions, so as to take advantage of all of the revs that are available to us.  We’re really not concerned with being too hard on the engine.  In fact, by the end of the day today, we’ll have put 318 laps on this engine.  Apart from being down on power, it has not given us a moment’s worth of worry.  The team is taking some more drag out of the car, and is making the requisite adjustments to get the aero properly balanced front and rear.

We’re still working hand in hand with Lotus.  They see what we see the same time that we see it.  They know every move we are making and are themselves processing the info, talking it over, and making the correlating adjustments.  We’re exploring and discovering, while pushing for more speed while keeping Jean comfortable, and doing all of these things at the same time.  All are learning.  It’s a steep learning curve.  It’s a good thing that we were able to assemble a group of incredibly capable people on such short notice, as the learning curve has been flattened and accelerated (though still quite steep). 

Jean rolls out again at 4:49pm.  Within one lap he knows that the changes just made did not go far enough, and he returns the car to the pit lane.  5:00pm sees the #64 return to the racetrack, as “happy hour” begins.  Jean embarks on another simulated qualifying run, posting 3 laps in excess of 212mph, and then jumps up into the mid-213mph range.  This is a huge psychological barrier, as a lap in the teens puts him that much closer to the pack.  He has now also shaved 5mph from the gap from the fastest overall speed and his fastest speed.  In addition to that, a small but important victory is achieved, as Jean returns to 1^st in class, posting a higher speed (more than 1mph more) than his fellow Lotus runner.  Additionally, he has now gone more than a mile an hour faster than his previous fastest lap, though he did do so with a tow (as is the case for almost everybody else).  The team discovers that with the amount of drag and downforce that has been removed, which doesn’t seem to have an effect on Jean’s comfort level in the least, that the gearing is coming up a little short.  This is noted and will be addressed before returning to the circuit on Saturday.      

Now, with the car almost completely trimmed out in the aero department, mechanical grip is addressed.  The team makes some camber adjustments on the left front of the car.  It can’t be said enough that the feedback the Jean provides is tremendous, and that he has certainly accelerated the learning curve on these cars with his vast experience. 

Venturing out again at 5:17pm, Jean does a couple laps at 211mph and 212mph.  He comes back in, wanting a bit more front grip.  The team obliges him.  He receives sticker tires, the car is trimmed just a bit more, and he is sent back to the circuit for another simulated qualifying run.  His out lap is in excess of 210mph, and he goes on to post four laps with an average above 213mph, doing so completely by himself with no tow whatsoever.  Jean has now matched and even exceeded the rest of his fellow competitors, adding more than 5mph from his fastest pre-boost change non-tow lap, to his fastest post-boost change non-tow lap.  That’s another small victory.  Whereas yesterday he ended the day 19mph adrift from the top speed on the day, today he trails the leader by only 14mph.  When tows are factored out, it appears that Jean may be as little as 11mph to 12mph off the true top speed of the day.  Again, these are small but not insignificant victories for this driver and his team.  This should really serve to change the conversation in a lot of ways. 

Though Jean is running very light in the rear wing downforce department, it is believed that there may be more there.  It is not all the way laid back, and Jean has not expressed any discomfort with the downforce going away.  Jean communicates that even though the car was faster, and that he was running his highest speeds yet (lap and trap speeds), the car felt slower.  This is a good sign.  Even with the car trimmed out, his comfort level has not decreased.  Ladies and gentleman, he’s a gamer!  As of right now, he really likes the car.  However, the team is not going to push this luck too far.  They can take the trim a very little bit farther, but will be, as mentioned, focusing more on the mechanical grip from this point, with the goal of reducing steering input and diminishing the scrubbing of speed in the corner.  Consensus seems to be that there is still another mph (if not 2) in the car. 

On the day, Jean completed 40 laps, bringing his combined total (including last week’s official ROP sessions) to 318 laps on the Speedway.  He has been putting in the necessary time on the racetrack, and he is in the top half for laps completed this month.  This is a great testament to a dedicated driver and team, that simply refuse to quit.  In the end, we did in fact close the gap.  We’re getting there.  Thanks for taking the ride with us.  What shall the weekend bring?           

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