by The Insider » Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:08 pm
India, Abu Dhabi, Texas and the Brazilian GP’s on the road with HRT.
Hi Guys,
As promised before I left for India, here is an outline of how it all went during the final four races of the 2012 season with the HRT merry go round.
To be honest, when my mate asked me to step in to assist the team for the final back to back flyaway’s of the year I didn’t want to do it, I knew it would be gruelling and really hard work, however; I bit the bullet and took the opportunity to get back in the pit lane and see what it’s all about since I last worked at a GP weekend which was Brazil 2006.
India:
I jumped a flight from Manchester to Madrid on Oct 19th then met the lads at the factory the next day; we hopped onto an Emirates flight to Delhi via Dubai and arrived in India on the Sunday afternoon.
It’s some time since I was last in that part of the world and to be honest I have missed the chaos of the sub continent, most F1 types don’t like it there but I love as I’ve spent so much time in between India, Nepal and Pakistan.
I knew through experience (plus everything I had been told about HRT) and their lack of budget etc that this would not (by any means) be a seamless few weeks with this team, my suspicions were well founded and it went wrong at the first fence on the Monday morning.
A coach arrived at the hotel to take us to the track, after twenty minutes it was very obvious that the driver didn’t have a clue where he was going and we ended up in downtown Delhi much to the displeasure of everyone and none more so than the ‘Chief Truckie’, to say he was annoyed would be an understatement.
The thing is, we are all pushing to get the garage built by Tuesday lunchtime, the cars HAVE to be worked on by then at a flyaway, everything in this game is time critical and even more so with a small budget team, that means less spares, less staff, less infrastructure and a lot more work for everyone concerned.
However; we made it to the track eventually around 1115am when (in truth) we should have been there by 0930, not the most auspicious start I’ve ever seen but we were soon well ahead as the team doesn’t have a massive garage set up, PLUS, what they do have was well thought out by the ‘Chief Truckie’ it is easily assembled AND packed up.
You have to remember that the last team I worked at was Red Bull, the current triple back to back World Champions, so to come into HRT with very little of everything was quite frustrating, we had a lot more and much better kit on the RBR Showcar project than this team had to go racing, as always, it’s all about cash and they (HRT) spent very little on frills, it was just a question of buying what you can afford to and making it to the flag in Brazil.
The week went ok but I was surprised how poor the cars actually were in many areas, this was no way to run an F1 team and it was obvious to me that the writing was on the wall, unless a well funded buyer could be found, this team would NEVER see the 2013 season opener in Australia.
We got through the FP 1&2 and I soon discovered that Friday’s ARE a killer, it’s an eighteen hour day from leaving the hotel to returning, I’m NOT used to that anymore and it was my feet and leg injury from two years ago that suffered the most.
To add insult to that injury, I had hardly any team kit and NO trainers, are you getting the picture about this team now? NO trainers, I had to beg a pair from my mate at Lotus, luckily he had a spare pair with him and saved me even more pain.
Saturday went to plan and (as expected) the cars were back of the grid after qualifying, or as the lads called it “Twenty minutes of disappointment”
When you choose to do work for a lower end team, the key to NOT being disappointed with results is not to have any expectations and accept it for what it is, I wasn’t disappointed.
Sunday morning arrived and there was an accident in the garage, one of the carbon fibre guys lifted a circuit supplied ‘garage cooling fan’, there was a gap at the bottom of the guard and his fingers went straight through, as you might imagine, it wasn’t pretty.
As it turned out he was the ‘Pit Stop Rear Jack Man’
Yes, you guessed it, TI had to stand in with NO practise, the last time I did rear jack in a stop was at Jaguar in 2000, however I managed fine, first stop was a little slow but the second was spot on.
You never lose it ;o)
India to Abu Dhabi:
We packed up after the race and left straight away next morning for Abu Dhabi, the contrast in country and culture is incredible, from extreme poverty with millions living on the streets to sickening wealth, from the friendliest people your ever likely to meet to a nation that looks at you with distain, they don’t like us but they need us. I have NEVER liked the Middle East or the Arabs.
Don’t get me wrong, we had a nice enough time there and the circuit is an AMAZING facility to work at but that’s all material things, life is about people, not places, the people make the place.
By the Thursday of the second week my leg and feet were so sore that I needed to sit down as often as possible in the evening, it was the end of October and touching 37 degs in the day and cooling to 30 degs in the evening, that is NOT for me.
There Isn’t a great deal to report about Abu Dhabi race apart from a Hydraulic problem with Narain’s car which caused him to suddenly lose the power steering, he then HAD to lift immediately to avoid a massive off, unfortunately Rosburg was tucked up behind Narain and you all saw the accident.
There was a lot of damage to the RH side of the car and it wasn’t good, it forced a factory type repair to the RH Crash Structure in Austin, Mark (the carbon man) did a STUNNING job on the car and you would not have known the difference come Friday morning FP1, good skills all round.
By the Sunday evening in Abu Dhabi I WAS struggling badly after two weeks in the heat and humidity, I was ever so glad when the Monday evening flight out of a stinking hot Abu Dhabi arrived and we headed for five days off in a cool Madrid, relief was not the word.
The rest and down time helped my feet and leg recover so by the time we hit the States I was in much better shape to deal with the long days, it’s obvious that you soften up a lot when you’re out of the game for SO long and my performances in the US and Brazil were more like the ‘old me’ and everyone noticed the difference in my energy levels.
Austin Texas USA:
It was (of course) fantastic to make the return to the US for a GP, I for one was a bit sceptical about it both being in Texas AND their ability to pull it off.
Two years ago everything I was hearing was about lack of money and lots of politics that would kill the project before it even started, WELL, I’m delighted to say I was wrong and we had a fabulous time even though the garages are WAY too small for modern F1.
Considering that Abu Dhabi is now the modern day template for an F1 facility it was a little disappointing to be crammed into an inadequate garage space, the overall facility is fairly good but the Paddock lacks working space, again it’s slightly disappointing when you consider how big everything else is in Texas and the landmass there is available, shame really.
However; I have NO DOUBT F1 will be racing in Texas for years to come, that’s a given and the circuit have a degree of work to do between now and the first MOTO GP race in five months time but after seeing what they have already achieved I am now confident they will get it done.
The people in Austin were fantastic and they really threw themselves into the race week with events downtown in the city, the bars, restaurants and clubs were packed and there were 62,000 spectators for Friday Practice alone, that’s more than Hockenheim race day this year, tells you everything you need to know about the popularity of the sport in the states.
Race Day saw 120,000 spectators at the ‘Circuit of the Americas, that’s really impressive.
Brazil:
Well, as ALWAYS, I LOVE going to Brazil, I have some fantastic friends there and the people are just so friendly and welcoming.
We arrived a little late due to cheap flights via here there and everywhere, however; as I said before, the HRT garage set up is quick and easy and again we were on top of things pretty sharpish and out of there even quicker for one of the main eating event of the year, Brazilian BBQ or Churrascaria.
It truly is an eating experience worth global recognition, if you have never experienced this then Google ‘Foga de Chao’, that will explain it all.
Our hotel was around Marumbi, all the teams are based there, it’s twenty five minutes from the circuit at Interlagos and not far from the cemetery where Senna is buried, as normal I made my pilgrimage to pay my respects to the great man, it’s something you just HAVE to do when you’re so close.
The whole week was a bit of low point for the team, it was pretty obvious that this would be the last ever GP for HRT, there were so many rumours about the team going bust, ceasing to operate, Chinese and Arabic buyers, not getting paid and contract breaches etc, it was just misery for most of the lads.
Luckily none of this concerned me as I was only there on a short term contract but I can see the effect it had on the boys who had put a year of their life into the team and could see it dying in front of their eyes, it was all a bit sad really, but as I lived through the demise of Arrows AND Super Aguri there was NO DOUBT in my mind that this was a team on its last legs and it was over.
We covered off FP1 & 2 on Friday with the minimum amount of laps, just enough to get an idea of how the car was suited to the track, it was a spares saving exercise on both Friday and Saturday, there was just enough left to do the race, no more, a shunt on either day would have meant a DNS for one of the cars, luckily we scraped through to the Sunday and saw both cars across the line, there was no celebration in the garage, only the want to pack up and get out on the town for a well earned drink or two.
We flew back to Madrid on the Iberia flight overnight on Monday and arrived at 0530, I was sitting at baggage collection with Alonso who was on the same flight, he looked really down after a tough year, I couldn’t help myself and as I’ve spent the last year training as a ‘Performance Coach’ I went straight into coaching mode and ran through some stuff with him while we waited on the bags, he looked at me a little strangely at first but I soon had him feeling better about the whole affair.
He has been (in my opinion) the best driver this season in an inferior car, the lad ticks ALL the boxes, he’s a beast and if he was driving that RBR car he would be untouchable.
I arrived at the hotel at 0630 and went to bed, I was up around 1400hrs to find out what had gone on at the factory with the guys that went straight from the airport.
NOW, you all saw the press reports about, and I quote, ‘Drunken HRT mechanics in factory brawl’
TOTAL AND ABSULUTE NONSENSE.
There was NO ONE drunk on the flight, and there were NO mechanics, truckies, electricians or for that matter any other NON management involved in ANY brawl, it’s a TOTAL fabrication of the facts, I WILL however be posting a little story about what actually happened last Tuesday morning, but only when the whole HRT business is closed and ceases to operate.
Coaching:
For me the opportunity to return the F1 fold was driven by a want to ‘have another go’ but mostly because I have spent the last year training as a ‘Performance Coach’.
I now do a degree of work with a football agent here in Liverpool and a FANTASTIC ‘Elite Performance Coach’ who (it has to be said) is my mentor.
Being back in a team for four races offered me the greatest networking opportunity possible for my new skills and to be honest they were VERY well received by my team mates, friends but more importantly the drivers.
I took the chance to run some of what I had learned by all the HRT drivers including the reserve lads who do the Friday driving, it went very well.
After that success I pushed fairly hard with the other teams and drivers I know, I had a fantastic 30 minutes with the William’s star kid Valtteri Bottas, the lad is a class act, no doubt about it, I had already done an aero test with him here in the UK last year, it was obvious then that he was good but when I coached him I was a bit taken aback by how good he actually is, he is a DEFINATE star of the future.
I also chatted with Max Chilton, Charles Pic, Timo Glock and Mark Webber, they are all booked in for a session here at home between now and the first 2013 test.
I have to say it felt really special to be able to offer these athletes something different after taking a step back from the sport and reinventing myself, even at fifty years old it CAN be done, all you have to do is work hard and have passion.
I hope this has been worth a read for all of you, I’ll be home at Christmas with my dad so if you see me out and about please stop me for a chat.
Merry Christmas to all,
TI
Last edited by
The Insider on Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
We're here for a good time, NOT a long time, so keep it lit and never quite.