{"id":54127,"date":"2017-08-03T11:14:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T10:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/guest-column-with-dario-franchitti\/"},"modified":"2019-07-19T14:57:38","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T13:57:38","slug":"guest-column-dario-franchitti","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/march-2017\/38\/guest-column-dario-franchitti\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest column with Dario Franchitti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think qualifying for the Indy 500 is easy? Think again…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indy is out on its own. Those four solo qualifying laps for the 500 are far more intense than any other race, but if you make pole you have a whole week to enjoy the prestige before the event. And of course that cheque for $100,000. I never made pole but four times I qualified third, which puts you on the outside and I think that gives you a better run into turn 1.<\/p>\n

Waiting in the line-up for your run there will be five cars going through technical inspection, then you come into Gasoline Alley and line up. So you\u2019re now strapped in the car, and all this stuff is going through your head. <\/p>\n

For someone watching, or even a rookie driver, you think it should be fairly simple \u2013 two warm-up laps, four qualifying laps, four left-hand corners that are essentially the same \u2013 how difficult can it be? <\/p>\n

 The first thing to understand is this is the narrowest of tightropes. Anything is going to affect what you\u2019re about to do \u2013 the temperature, wind direction, even a gust of wind has big consequences. One gust can spoil not just a lap but your whole week! It\u2019s so critical, you\u2019re on such a knife-edge. At that point, weather permitting, you\u2019ve done six days in that car so your nerves are already a little frayed. Probably you\u2019ve had a few close calls; it\u2019s rare you\u2019re sitting there completely confident even if you have a good car. You\u2019re aware if the car isn\u2019t quite right or if you\u2019re going to have some issues in these four laps. But you\u2019ve got to stay flat out; as soon as you lift your momentum is all gone so you have to
\nfigure out how you\u2019re going to do that, which angle of approach you want for each corner.<\/p>\n

The pressure of those qualifying laps is immense, but if you make it into the top nine you only have to do it once more. If you\u2019re outside that you\u2019ll have to go through it another four or five times. It wears away at you. In all my years I only ever felt I was on top of it once, in 2007; that car was so good I didn\u2019t even use all the road. Then someone beat my time! <\/p>\n

Qualifying set-up has no relation to the race \u2013 you have far less downforce for your solo runs. You also have one day at higher qualifying boost and that makes a difference of as much as 5 or 7mph round the lap. (No-one talks about 40-second laps, it\u2019s all about miles an hour.) You\u2019ve had 5 or 10 simulated runs already so you have half an idea how things are \u2013 but from Friday to Saturday the temperature changes, or the wind, and it makes big differences to the car \u2013 I visualise the track as altering shape according to the wind \u2013 so the crew are tweaking things, even the ratios right up to lining up. I aim to run the whole lap in one gear \u2013 quick as the change is you still lose speed, but if the simulation shows it, the guys will tell me if a shift is quicker. And we\u2019re talking just 50 or 70rpm difference.<\/p>\n

The engineers have been building that car for six months and every trick they know is on there. Indy will be its first race, though you may use it afterwards at other speedways. But this is the quickest you\u2019ll ever run. What I like is it\u2019s all in driver\u2019s hands \u2013 the engineers have given you absolutely the best car they can, then it\u2019s over to you. You\u2019ve got to have that faith in your team when you turn into turn 1. And I always felt we were in with a shout.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be strapped into the car 20 minutes before, checking I\u2019m comfortable. There\u2019s a lot going on but I shut off; all I would see is just the car, the wheel, the readouts. I didn\u2019t even look at other people\u2019s speeds. I would run through the attempt in my mind, try to play the whole run in my head beforehand to plan my attack.  <\/p>\n

The biggest issue on warm-up laps is trying to build up momentum without killing the tyres because they will go away in those four laps. On your first warm-up, past the yard of bricks, you lift early to settle the car, not to put too much pressure on the tyres. Turn 2 is where you start to build momentum, you\u2019re up to 230-something, even 240 by the end of the straight and you\u2019re flat out through turn 3.<\/p>\n

Probably you\u2019ll adjust the weight-jacker, which compresses one
\nof the rear springs to push weight across the car; there\u2019s a button on
\nthe wheel for that. <\/p>\n

One more lap, then out of turn 4 you\u2019ll hear on the radio \u201cokay, green flag\u201d, and you\u2019re into your four flying laps. Your strategist counts down the laps, but that\u2019s the only time they will speak in these sessions; they know what the driver\u2019s going through.<\/p>\n

Turn 1 looks identical to 3 but it\u2019s not; there\u2019s something about the architecture of the banking that makes the car want to go into oversteer. To make matters worse the wind generally comes from the north, pushing the car into the corner, and you\u2019ve got the lowest tyre pressures still, but you\u2019ve got to keep your foot down. So this is probably the highest risk of the whole run. In fact you might even be backing off a little bit, using a bit of opposite lock in that first stage of the corner.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a painted white line about a foot from the kerb; you\u2019re not going to touch that on lap one, let alone go below it. As you clear the corner the wind is hitting the left side, causing a bit of understeer.<\/p>\n

Entering 2 there seems less banking \u2013 it\u2019s just an optical illusion. Then, as Jackie would say, you give the car its head; you\u2019re unwinding lock as quick as you can.<\/p>\n

Now you\u2019re facing a headwind which is killing your straightline speed; you\u2019re not accelerating the way you\u2019d like, but as you approach turn 3 that wind become your friend because it gives you extra downforce and slows the car down, and here you value any downforce you can get.<\/p>\n

As you turn into 3 there are three bumps at the apex, the only bumps at Indy. You feel the car touch the ground but only lightly. For some reason the car wants to go up the banking here. <\/p>\n

Turn 4 is fairly straightforward on entry and apex but as you exit you feel the wind push the car toward the outside wall. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s your first lap! What you\u2019ve then got is the feeling tyre degradation; you have so little downforce on that car that you\u2019re reliant on the tyres; you\u2019re thinking how am I going to keep it flat next time? You\u2019re taking deep breaths as you start to feed the car
\nin because the rear\u2019s going to be less stable, so you can\u2019t make the adjustments you\u2019d like because then the car will understeer toward the wall. So mid-corner you have a to add a little lock \u2013 which slows you down and hurts the tyre. It\u2019s Catch 22.  <\/p>\n

By the end of that lap you\u2019ve an idea what\u2019s going on so you start adjusting the controls \u2013 your weight-jacker, anti-roll bars, sometimes even in the \u2018short chute\u2019 between 1\/2 and 3\/4. Which means taking your hand off the wheel at a 230-some average\u2026 <\/p>\n

From then on you\u2019re heading down a slope, fighting the degradation, the wind, you\u2019re looking at your speed bleed away because you\u2019re trying to be more aggressive. There\u2019s times after one of those laps you come down the front straight and there\u2019s two laps to go and you think, how am I going to make those laps? You\u2019re willing this car on, because you have to get this big number; you don\u2019t want it to drop off because it\u2019s the average that counts, not the fastest lap.<\/p>\n

By lap four the back slides on the way in, the front slides on way out; five degrees of lock has become 10. You\u2019re running out of road and that concrete wall is just waiting for you. You might even brush it once or twice. You\u2019re almost in survival mode, keeping it all together for the final lap. Then you think, thank god that\u2019s over!<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the mental run-through: you\u2019ve got to the top of the line, a guy signals to start the engine, another waves you onto the track. Now you have to do it for real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121674],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223694,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54127\/revisions\/223694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54127"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=54127"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=54127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}