This weekend sees Formula
1 take on a pioneering role once again, as the sport
makes its first ever visit to India, for the eponymous
grand prix, which will take place in Noida, a suburb of
Delhi. As the globalisation of Formula 1 continues at a
fast pace, with new venues coming on the calendar on a
seemingly yearly basis – last year it was Korea, next
sees a return to the United States – the teams face the
challenge of being as well prepared as possible for
Friday free practice, without the luxury of running on
the actual race track.
Fortunately, the technology exists to deal with this, in
the shape of the simulator. Originally developed for the
aero industry to train pilots, the F1 version has been
in use for a few years now, its development speeded up
by necessity, when the in-season ban on testing was
introduced a couple of years ago. Imagine a large scale
version of a Formula 1 computer game and you have the
overview of what is involved, although at this
professional level the simulator is rather more complex.
“We start by modelling the new track for the simulator,
using CAD drawings, data, pictures and sometimes, laser
scanning of the track, says Gabriele Delli Colli, in
charge of Driver Simulator Development & Operations for
Scuderia Ferrari. “After we have prepared the model,
then it can be driven on using the simulator, where the
first task is to look for a base line in terms of car
set-up from which we can start work. In preparation for
this weekend, Fernando and Felipe both were in the
simulator driving the India track in the week after the
Italian Grand Prix, having a good session, and they both
enjoyed the track, finding it to be quite unique in its
characteristics. This year, we have also been able to
make our simulator available to those drivers who are
part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, which means that
Sergio Perez has also driven the simulator, basically to
learn the track.”
While the drivers are keen to know which way to turn the
steering wheel and where to brake, the engineers are
looking for any other useful track information they can
gather. “From what we can see, the Buddh circuit is
different to all the others on the calendar, because it
has been given a very unusual layout,” continues Delli
Colli. “It has several changes of gradient, going up and
down a lot and almost all the corners are built with a
lot of camber, or more accurately, they are banked. The
other unusual characteristic is that many of the braking
and turn-in points for the corners are blind, so there
is a possible advantage in learning the track before
seeing it for real for the first time.”
“Normally a day of testing starts at 9 in the morning
and finishes around 3, doing between 15 and 20 runs
which equates to around 70 laps” – continues Gabriele –
“Depending on what are our targets, we begin with a
session dedicated to car development, trying different
options starting from a basic set-up. If we have a
session for a new track, again we start with a basic
set-up with the work aimed at the driver learning the
track. We also try and see if the track has some
characteristics in common with other circuits to help in
our development work.”
Ferrari has a team of drivers it can call on to work in
the simulator. “We have test drivers, with different
levels of experience, who develop the simulator and the
model,” says Delli Colli. “The final decision is always
with Fernando and Felipe who come for about one session
per month, to validate the tests we have done before.
The best simulator drivers are Fernando and Felipe as
they have something more compared to the others, because
they know the car better, so the speed and final
performance comes from the two race drivers. In the end,
this work is quite similar to what we used to test on
the track, although in my opinion track testing is a bit
more straightforward. On the simulator you need to pay
more attention to how the model is configured and of
course the hardest part of the job is to find the true
correlation between the simulator and the real car.”
Delli Colli’s explanation shows that the simulator can
be used by a driver to become familiar with a new track
and for engineers to develop a starting point for the
race weekend’s car development. But the simulator can
also be used to help plan race strategy. “For a new
venue, we are in the situation of having no historic
data,” says the Scuderia’s Head of Operations Research
Department, Neil Martin. “Therefore work on simulation
must start several months prior to the event. After
generating a virtual track and bringing in the drivers,
you can begin to calculate the virtual forces on the
car. This means you get an idea of the loads on the
tyres and added to data provided regarding the abrasive
level of the track surface, you can start to estimate
tyre wear at this circuit, which is a crucial piece of
data when it comes to planning strategy. Also, you can
look at finding the optimal racing line or work out the
chances of being overtaking and how far back a car can
overtake from if it uses the DRS.”
Scuderia Ferrari and the other teams that use simulators
will therefore have a rough idea what to expect when the
pit lane light goes green on Friday morning, but no one
can be sure what to expect from the new Buddh circuit.
This is reflected in the tyre choice for the weekend,
which Pirelli itself describes as “conservative”: Soft
and Hard are the two types on offer, although unusually,
the Soft is nominated as the Prime, which means teams
automatically get more of these to use on Friday, while
the Hard is there in case the track surface is much more
abrasive than expected. The 2011 season has thrown up
plenty of surprises and a new circuit is bound to keep
that tradition going this weekend.
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