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This is one of the topics that I'm always asked about.
Usually the question is, “Do you get to practice a
lot?". In racing,
we call practice, “testing.” The
reason why it is called testing is
because we are
testing new things on the racecar. A better
phrase for
“testing” is “Research and Development”.
Testing is one of the most important things in racing
and as a
fan you never get to see it. It is essentially
practice for the entire
team, but for the most part it is
about developing the racecar and
learning more about
what setup works best for what situations.
Testing is very expensive, so a team will have to pick
which track
will be best for what needs to be
accomplished. Not all tracks
are good testing tracks.
You want to go to the track that is most
likely going to
teach you what you are looking to learn.
At the lower levels of the racing ladder, testing is
more about the driver because at that level the driver
needs lots of seat time.
Usually the teams at those
levels know quite a lot about the cars already, so it is
more about making sure the driver is comfortable with
the car.
At the higher levels, testing tends to be much less
driving time because it is expected that the driver does
not need as much time to get comfortable. Also at this
level, the team may only be going to test a few things,
so you will go out for 10 laps and then get out of the
car for an hour to then go through what that specific
setting really did.
Because testing is so expensive, the team needs to have
a specific game plan that everyone knows, so that you
can be as efficient and effective as possible. The
mechanics need to have the car working properly so that
time is not wasted with small issues. The engineers need
to know what the next changes are so that there is
minimal down time.
The driver’s role is much different in testing than on a
race weekend. Yes, you still need to drive the car fast
and to the best of your ability, but a driver needs to
have a certain discipline as well. Sometimes, you are
testing something that does not require you to go as
fast as possible. A driver also has to be as consistent
as possible so that you can have definite knowledge of
what each setting change did.
The driver also has to give the right feedback to the
engineers. If the car is doing one thing and the driver
says it is doing the opposite, than the team will go in
the wrong direction and then you have wasted the team’s
time and money. A driver cannot throw the car into the
wall either, as now the team’s day is done and you
haven’t learned much except that walls hurt and racecars
break.
The results of testing are not always known the same
day. Usually you have to go back to the shop and sort
through all of the information that was gathered and
determine what worked and what did not. A team is never
done testing. There is always something to learn and
once you have learned that, there is something else
beyond that to learn. You can always go faster!
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