Llandow was the first time Andrew had driven this season. It was a baptism of fire with the wet practice and Andrew was the first to experience driving through the puddles on slicks. In hindsight, wets were probably the better fitment. Andrew had a massive moment in first practice that knocked his confidence and he wasn’t back on the pace in the following runs.
Here’s how our final timed runs compared; Andrew in green and me in blue. The top graph shows speed, the middle graph throttle position and the lower graph both steering angle and brake pedal pressure.
Off the line, there’s very little in it, but I launched at huge revs in comparison. We were similar on pace through the Bus Stop section but I used far more throttle between the apexes. Andrew dragged the brake through the right hander after the Bus Stop, whilst I used my customary prod of the throttle mid-corner. Ideas on how to stop myself doing that appreciated! I was early on the throttle though and this gave a small advantage.
I kept on the throttle later into the right hander that leads into the back straight and a short lift with no brake gave me a 10mph advantage onto the back straight. I was later on the brakes into the chicane, holding the brakes until turning into the second apex of the chicane. I also got on the power straight away coming out of the chicane, holding full throttle and a little more steering angle for a 6mph advantage.
A short stab of the brakes coming into the final corner of the first lap allowed me to maintain a 5mph advantage through the corner and I was back at full throttle before Andrew was off the brakes. Andrew used more revs down the straight and was back on my pace by the end of the straight. I was later on the brakes and pressed much harder whilst Andrew took a few stabs at the brakes. That led to a maximum disparity of 25mph.
I turned into the chicane far more aggressively, whilst Andrew fed in the wheel. This was probably different lines, but I was turning into the second apex of the chicane earlier as a result. Andrew had a fair amount of oversteer mid-corner and that might be why I straightened up earlier and managed to get full throttle before the final apex of the chicane and again afterwards. This gained me up to 9mph.
As a result of my extra speed out of the Bus Stop, I needed to hop on the brakes coming into the right-hander that follows, but only a short stab. Andrew balanced the car much more neatly as shown by the lesser steering angle into the corner. I was back hard on the throttle on the exit, which gave me a few mph into the next corner where we lifted at the same time. Andrew was off the throttle completely and dragged the brake a little, whilst I took a half-lift of the same period. You can see the understeer from the new rear wing in my increased steering angle.
Coming into the chicane for the final time, I was later and harder on the brakes, but carried more speed through all 3 apexes. This led to a different line out of the chicane and that allowed Andrew to pick up to the same speed on the exit of the following right-hander, despite less throttle because he’d chosen third gear instead of fifth. Andrew braked longer into the final corner giving an apex speed about 5mph lower and continued to drag the brakes through the corner beyond the point I was on full throttle. He exited in third gear whilst I used fifth, which allowed him to catch up by the finish line.
