We got up this morning at an early 5:00am so we could be at the track by 6:45 like the team wanted. Liam had trouble getting his butt up but a good yelling always takes care of that for him.
8:20am - First practice
We now have the first session under our belt over here in Europe and both driver and coach have learned a lot. First off as a coach I learned that this track is very big and it takes a long time to get out to the corners by foot. I went to the first chicane after the hairpin and running and walking it took me a good 20 minutes. I will take that hill at Laguna any day of the week now. For Liam he learned that you cannot be too prepared. He spent a lot of time on R-Factor driving this track but he said it never came close to preparing him for how big the track is. He said that he should have spent more time watching video instead of playing the game. He also learned that they don’t mess around warming up like he has been used to and you need to get going from the drop of the green flag.
The morning practice Liam was a little nervous and it showed a bit in his driving. He went out to learn a new track and drove from point to point instead of pushing himself and the car. If I hadn’t been working with Liam for 3 seasons now I would have been really worried but I had faith in him -being the analyst that he is - that he would do better in qualifying and hit all the right marks. We went over data in great detail and really worked on getting a good braking program going for him since this was where he was getting hurt the most. He could not come up with anymore than 78 bar brake pressure (you do the math). We had him sit in the car and hook the laptop up online so we could tell him how hard to push the pedal to get the 90 bar that he needed. I think that someone needs to do a lot more leg exercises at least on his left leg anyways. Liam has a lot to work on this next session (which is qualifying) but I have faith in him.
We are done for the day now and sitting at the track waiting for my data so I can rip Liam apart (just kidding!). Liam qualified 15th for Saturday’s race and 14th for Sunday’s race. A little farther back than we thought that we would be before the weekend started but after being here we realize this is a super competitive series. After the morning practice when he was sitting 19th and 3 and a half seconds off first place, yes I was a little worried, but now I am very happy. I think that the team was expecting more out of Liam from everything that they had heard but after the first session they just said he has a lot to learn and we are here to help him which was a great relief.
All the braking programming worked as Liam ended up into the mid 90 bar area for brake pressure during qualifying. He is still having trouble in turn 1 which is a 5th gear almost 90 degree corner. I am having him focus on blending the pedals more and focusing on the platform of the car for the race.
In qualifying I knew that Liam would struggling the most in turn 1, so I figured I would head down to pit lane for the session where I could watch turn 1 from the inside. They ran qualifying 1 and 2 together – a total of 20 minutes each with 10 minutes in between where you could make changes or put two new tires on. I was able to watch Liam go by one lap before an official came and asked me for a “pit wall access pass” and I am sorry to say I could not talk my way out of this one. I have never been denied access anywhere at a track and have always managed to get anywhere I want or needed to go - but not this time. The Germans are tough nuts to crack. Being that it was too late to go out to a corner, I had planned on downloading the car and quickly go through the data between qualifying session to see where I could help him and I wouldn’t make it back in time if I went out to a corner, so I just stood back against the garages where I could only see the cars as they passed the end of pit lane. This became one of the coolest parts of the weekend so far for me. I would watch the crew and when they gave Liam the pit board (that’s right - no radios are allowed to be used) I would listen and put my auditory sensory input to work and although I couldn't see him, I could tell that he was struggling there just by the sound of the engine and the coasting he was doing. During the break between sessions I talked to him about blending the pedals better through there and that is where he picked up his biggest gain between the two sessions. The unfortunate part was that he gained about 1 second and it only moved him up 1 position. One second the previous session would have put him in the top 8 easily.
As it turns out he did his best lap of the weekend so far in the second qualifying session and is only 1.2 seconds off pole. One second would have put him into 4th position, so you can see it is a very tight field. It is a far better time than the first practice session this morning. ...that's good coaching (Ed)
We left the track at around 8:00pm and again it is cold here tonight, the minute the sun goes behind a cloud or goes down it really cools off big time. Got back to the hotel and we are not sure if someone played a trick on us but all the radiator heaters in our little room are on maximum and it is like a sauna in here. Not sure how, but maybe the VW people got in here some how.
All in all it was a good day as we both learned a lot. To be honest, we both came here thinking that it wasn’t going to be easy but figured that Liam would be in the top 5 from what we had heard about this series. We were served notice early on and took it like the men we are and blamed each other (!) and then went to work on getting better which Liam did.
The race is 9:00am our time which is 3:00am eastern and 12:00am on the west coast so while all of you are snuggled in bed, Liam will be living one of his dreams - to race in Europe, something he has always wanted to do.