JQ at the TITC – Day 3
Another day complete at the TITC and Invisible Speed’s Joseph Quagraine has been focusing on the finer details and convincing a few people to get on board with the idea. We’ll hand you over to JQ to explain…….
Qualifying and one main is done here at TITC, and I have learned something more. This one is a mistake I see even the very best drivers make, and in some ways it is illogical, based on how attention to detail oriented and precise the on road nerds…I mean racers are. While they weigh and measure everything to the tenth of a gram, degree or mm, the surprising thing is their approach to setup. When it comes to changes the changes are not a 10th of a gram, degree or mm, they are far bigger. And this is not the best way in my opinion.
Let me explain like this: The way I have seen drivers approach setup at TITC, is as if you go to a steak house, order a medium steak, receive it slightly too rare, then instead of asking for it to be cooked slightly more, you leave the restaurant, set it on fire, fly to a different country, and order lobster. While the lobster might be amazing, a better approach would be to cook the steak a bit more.
Earlier in the race the Xray boys were struggling, and having worked with Hagberg on Invisible Speed and Ronnefalk at Mayako I am friends with them, so for Q2 on, I gave them a suggestion of a base to go with, and have mainly since then tried to stop them making changes, and instead suggested minor tweaks. They did improve but too late, and unfortunate DNFs also ruined better placings for the finals.
I am here with Pekko Iivonen, who runs Schumacher, so I have got to know his team mate Michal Orlowski better at this race. Maybe a few helpful tips, along with Pekko being very fast in practice made him trust me a bit, so he has asked me for my opinion a few times. Without exception I have recommended less, and smaller changes, with one particular time being my favourite change, bumpsteer. 0.5mm in shims, and Michal doubted just that would be enough, and I said I believe it would, and thankfully it was.
The lessons so far, are to create a base setup using knowledge, not experience, then make smaller changes than currently, based on knowledge mixed with experience. This on road thing really is rewarding from an engineering minds point of view.
