Eric Côté's Setup Guide - Barcelona | ||||
Setups | ||||
|
||||
Introduction | ||||
The barcelona circuit, in my point of view is
not very difficult to master. The only real difficulty is the lack of reference
point for cornering/braking, due to the "desert scenery".
During my "workout" to find a good setup for raceday, i found out that the LEFT FRONT tire suffered the most from wear, all the rest of tires were still under 2mm of wear. So the tradeoff was removing some packers to that wheel to increase wheel travel. I have to confess that i was pushing hard, made a time of 1 min 21 s 674 on lap 3 (started with 19 fuel lap). I consistently ran in the mid 1 min 22 range all the time, I even made a 1 min 21 s 777 at the end of my practice (with worned tires). If your "gentle" enough on your tires and choose to go for 2 pitstop during a full race. Even a 3 pitstop is not bad if you can constantly run in the 1 min 22 range, At that pace you will outclass the field by 2 seconds a lap at ACE LEVEL. The track surface is not very abrasive, so the logical choice would be a 2 stop strategy. |
||||
Track Guide | ||||
Lets begin on how to go around the track as smooth
& fast as possible. Passing starting line you'll reach around 309 kph
before entering corner #1 (ELF), brake hard while downshifting to 2nd gear,
the entry point is critical to exit properly to corner #2 ,try to be as
close as possible to cerbstone on apex. This will prevent you to hit a
bump outside the normal trajectory line, and may cause a big back-end upset
(even leading to spin-off). At corner #2 you will have to "lift the gas"
and just after passing the apex gradually accelerate. Now you can accelerate
hard in corner #3, while in 4 th gear you'll have to lift a little bit
the gas,then accelerate up to 6th gear in that small sraight section going
to corner #4 (REPSOL), brake and downshift to 2nd gear.This corner has
a progessive widens angle, gently accelerate, go up to 4th gear going down
to the slow haipin corner 6 (SEAT), You're in 1st gear, try to touch apex
and then accelerate all the way thru corner 7 then up to 5th gear leading
to the 8th corner.
This long sweeper is hard to get a good rythm, the lack of reference points makes it difficult to exactly pinpoint the precise braking /corner entry, if you got it right, you're in the 3rd gear and can rush thru up to 5th gear at Campsa corner (9th). Here in race situation you have to downhift to 4th gear, accelerate again to 5th gear leading to Nissan Chicane (corner 10 & 11). Downshift to 3rd gear, if you enter correctly you will already upshift to 4th while touching the cerbstone (exterior), accelerate up to 5th gear at corner 12. This corner has some challenge, many entry point line can be taken, and like corner #4 it's a widening corner and you accelerate gently up to 3rd gear. Before entering corner 13 (double apex), try to lift the gas pedal,and smoothly change wheel direction while downshifting to 2nd gear. You negociate this corner with a steady speed, the entry point is critical to exit correctly, at exit you accelerate up 4th-5th gear (depending how "daredevil you are") to corner 14, continue accelerating to corner 15, again entry point is critical, to flick to downshift to 4th gear, then at the exit (touch the exterior cerbstone) upshift to 5th gear and down the straight to start line. VOILA! A full lap in racing condition! Again the key point is being smooth,and the worst
about this track is lack of reference point.
|
||||
|
||||
These track guides & pictures are copyright © Eric Côté |