Apr 2010
Pre-Season testing conclusions
April 2, 2010
Performance Racing started the pre-season testing with a shake-down at a wet and cold Silverstone on the 12th of March.
A few gremlins interrupted the shake-down, on Alon Day's car there was a persistent problem of a slipping clutch. We later discovered that Alon un-deliberatly rested his heel on the clutch pedal when cornering, thus making the clutch slip and finally over-heat. On Felix car the routing of the gear select cable was affected by the exhaust heat and made it hard to select gears in certain situation.
The problems where solved back at the workshop and we were now looking forward to 3 days of testing at the Nurburgring. Unfortunately the Nurburgring test was cancelled due to the weather conditions, the very cold weather over Europe made it very difficult to find a suitable circuit for us to carry on with our test
program but luckily the weather in Dijon was good and the track had one day open for single seaters.
On the 18th of March we started our Volkswagen F3 engines at the furiously fast Dijon circuit. Under cold but sunny conditions we could very soon see that our young rookie F3 drivers had a lot of potential. Since we were the only F3 cars on the circuit it was not easy to tell exactly how fast we were, but both our drivers were doing lap times close to the best times of the F3 Euroseries when they raced at Dijon in 2009. The test was running quite trouble free except for a scary moment for Alon who suddenly lost front brake pressure and left the circuit at 190 km/h. Luckily he stopped in the gravel trap and neither driver or car was hurt. It was later discovered that two of our new calipers had a fabrication fault. Our mechanics came up with a temporary solution that was discussed with manufacturer and the test could continue. The rest of the day went well and both drivers did well, but the physically demanding track took it's toll and both drivers reported sour necks after over 75 laps each at Dijon.
We now made our way north to Assen. On the 23rd of March we spent a whole day shooting a short film with an Israeli film crew. It was fun but very hard work since we had to do numerous pit stops from various camera positions. The film crew made us wear some funny overalls and caps, and honestly we all looked a bit odd and funny, but surprisingly on the TV screen it looked very professional. Part two will be shot at the first race in Oschersleben where live footage from the race will conclude the film. We are all looking forward to see the end result.
On the 24th of March we started day one of two days testing in Assen. Since it is very difficult to test at this circuit due to noise restrictions, it felt that just about everything on 4-wheels was out on the track at the same time, making it virtually impossible to get a clear lap. Alon was again hit by bad luck when his Volkswagen F3 engine decided to give up it's breath with a big bang. The exhaust valve in the number 4 cylinder ended up in the exhaust port and made a big mess in the engine. Our mechanics changed the engine over night and Alon could continue the test program without problems on the 2nd day. The traffic on the circuit was a constant problem but still our drivers learnt a track that they will race on twice this season and we also had a good benchmark since most of our opposition were on the circuit at same time as us. The overall result from Assen was encouraging. Below is the fastest times from Assen:
1st Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1:32.155
2nd Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:32.265
3rd Daniel Abt - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:32.345
4th Alon Day - Performance Racing 1:32.655
5th Kevin Magnusson - Motopark 1:33.019
We now headed south for a days testing at Hockenheim on March 30th.
It was again quickly recognised that both our drivers enjoyed the Hockenheim Grand Prix circuit and liked the handling of their cars. This is a circuit that
we have good experience of, with pole position in qualifying in both 2008 and 2009. We were quite lucky with the weather since we had both dry and wet sessions
and it was very encouraging to see that our drivers were fast no matter the conditions. Results from Hockenheim:
1st Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:35.600
2nd Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1:35.656
3rd Alon Day - Performance Racing 1:36.140
4th Caldarelli - Prema Power team 1:36.550
5th Liberati - Prema Power Team 1:37.153
Once again the team headed up north. This time to the tricky and technical Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The test was over two days, March 31th and April 1st. Since the first race will take place at Oschersleben this was going to be an important test and final preparations before the first event. We concentrated our efforts on qualifying setup since it's virtually impossible to overtake at this circuit. Unless you are much faster than the car in front you can't really overtake without taking a big risk. Both our driver also did full race distance sessions and practiced the start procedures. Both Felix and Alon produced very respectable lap times and particularly the times over a race distance were impressive. The overall results for the two days were:
1st Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1.20.677
2nd Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:20.932
3rd Alon Day - Performance Racing 1.21.066
4th Markus Pommer - Brandel Racing 1.21.070
5th Marco Sorensen - Brandel Racing 1.21.102
With the pre-season test program now concluded the team will stay in Oschersleben over the Easter weekend and prepare the cars.
As always testing is one thing and racing another but we must admit that our rookie F3 drivers Alon Day and Felix Rosenqvist have shown alot of potential and
they both have the pace to run at the front and eventually win races in Formula 3. We are looking forward to an exciting season...
Performance Racing started the pre-season testing with a shake-down at a wet and cold Silverstone on the 12th of March.
A few gremlins interrupted the shake-down, on Alon Day's car there was a persistent problem of a slipping clutch. We later discovered that Alon un-deliberatly rested his heel on the clutch pedal when cornering, thus making the clutch slip and finally over-heat. On Felix car the routing of the gear select cable was affected by the exhaust heat and made it hard to select gears in certain situation.
The problems where solved back at the workshop and we were now looking forward to 3 days of testing at the Nurburgring. Unfortunately the Nurburgring test was cancelled due to the weather conditions, the very cold weather over Europe made it very difficult to find a suitable circuit for us to carry on with our test
program but luckily the weather in Dijon was good and the track had one day open for single seaters.
On the 18th of March we started our Volkswagen F3 engines at the furiously fast Dijon circuit. Under cold but sunny conditions we could very soon see that our young rookie F3 drivers had a lot of potential. Since we were the only F3 cars on the circuit it was not easy to tell exactly how fast we were, but both our drivers were doing lap times close to the best times of the F3 Euroseries when they raced at Dijon in 2009. The test was running quite trouble free except for a scary moment for Alon who suddenly lost front brake pressure and left the circuit at 190 km/h. Luckily he stopped in the gravel trap and neither driver or car was hurt. It was later discovered that two of our new calipers had a fabrication fault. Our mechanics came up with a temporary solution that was discussed with manufacturer and the test could continue. The rest of the day went well and both drivers did well, but the physically demanding track took it's toll and both drivers reported sour necks after over 75 laps each at Dijon.
We now made our way north to Assen. On the 23rd of March we spent a whole day shooting a short film with an Israeli film crew. It was fun but very hard work since we had to do numerous pit stops from various camera positions. The film crew made us wear some funny overalls and caps, and honestly we all looked a bit odd and funny, but surprisingly on the TV screen it looked very professional. Part two will be shot at the first race in Oschersleben where live footage from the race will conclude the film. We are all looking forward to see the end result.
On the 24th of March we started day one of two days testing in Assen. Since it is very difficult to test at this circuit due to noise restrictions, it felt that just about everything on 4-wheels was out on the track at the same time, making it virtually impossible to get a clear lap. Alon was again hit by bad luck when his Volkswagen F3 engine decided to give up it's breath with a big bang. The exhaust valve in the number 4 cylinder ended up in the exhaust port and made a big mess in the engine. Our mechanics changed the engine over night and Alon could continue the test program without problems on the 2nd day. The traffic on the circuit was a constant problem but still our drivers learnt a track that they will race on twice this season and we also had a good benchmark since most of our opposition were on the circuit at same time as us. The overall result from Assen was encouraging. Below is the fastest times from Assen:
1st Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1:32.155
2nd Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:32.265
3rd Daniel Abt - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:32.345
4th Alon Day - Performance Racing 1:32.655
5th Kevin Magnusson - Motopark 1:33.019
We now headed south for a days testing at Hockenheim on March 30th.
It was again quickly recognised that both our drivers enjoyed the Hockenheim Grand Prix circuit and liked the handling of their cars. This is a circuit that
we have good experience of, with pole position in qualifying in both 2008 and 2009. We were quite lucky with the weather since we had both dry and wet sessions
and it was very encouraging to see that our drivers were fast no matter the conditions. Results from Hockenheim:
1st Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:35.600
2nd Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1:35.656
3rd Alon Day - Performance Racing 1:36.140
4th Caldarelli - Prema Power team 1:36.550
5th Liberati - Prema Power Team 1:37.153
Once again the team headed up north. This time to the tricky and technical Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The test was over two days, March 31th and April 1st. Since the first race will take place at Oschersleben this was going to be an important test and final preparations before the first event. We concentrated our efforts on qualifying setup since it's virtually impossible to overtake at this circuit. Unless you are much faster than the car in front you can't really overtake without taking a big risk. Both our driver also did full race distance sessions and practiced the start procedures. Both Felix and Alon produced very respectable lap times and particularly the times over a race distance were impressive. The overall results for the two days were:
1st Felix Rosenqvist - Performance Racing 1.20.677
2nd Stef Dusseldorp - Van Amersfoort Racing 1:20.932
3rd Alon Day - Performance Racing 1.21.066
4th Markus Pommer - Brandel Racing 1.21.070
5th Marco Sorensen - Brandel Racing 1.21.102
With the pre-season test program now concluded the team will stay in Oschersleben over the Easter weekend and prepare the cars.
As always testing is one thing and racing another but we must admit that our rookie F3 drivers Alon Day and Felix Rosenqvist have shown alot of potential and
they both have the pace to run at the front and eventually win races in Formula 3. We are looking forward to an exciting season...