Video from Mallory Park testing for Britsports Caterham
Discussion
Here's some videos from our test on Wednesday at Mallory Park, the first shakedown test for the Britsports Caterham Series. The car has had a new ECU (Tour-de-force - they did a great job), the windscreen has been removed, and it is now running slicks. All work carried out by Trackclub who have been ace.
The first video is from my quickest lap of the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq82AEtQpwE
My Team mate David Power from EcuTek and Powerflex was going very well and was 0.8s off my time after just one full session (I managed two sessions). However, he had a bit of an encounter with the barrier in his second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYnUenkOlZU
It did quite a lot of damage, but there may be a chance of us fixing it in time for Brands on the 13th, fingers crossed!
The first video is from my quickest lap of the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq82AEtQpwE
My Team mate David Power from EcuTek and Powerflex was going very well and was 0.8s off my time after just one full session (I managed two sessions). However, he had a bit of an encounter with the barrier in his second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYnUenkOlZU
It did quite a lot of damage, but there may be a chance of us fixing it in time for Brands on the 13th, fingers crossed!
Those videos really show the value of a system like this from a driver coaching point of view.
In your text on youtube you say that david understeered off of the circuit. The video shows that he was not looking far enough ahead and actually unwound the lock too soon. In effect he drove off off the circuit because he didn't know where he was.
I can give a full debrief on here if you like - both of you guys need to work on the way that you look through the corners.
In your text on youtube you say that david understeered off of the circuit. The video shows that he was not looking far enough ahead and actually unwound the lock too soon. In effect he drove off off the circuit because he didn't know where he was.
I can give a full debrief on here if you like - both of you guys need to work on the way that you look through the corners.
tough break on your friend, he did indeed just seem to run it wide off the black bit.
the usual there is to get on the gas just before the rise on the exit and end up in the same place.
the beamer did show some nice lines, and a bit of coaching for the day would seem "cheaper" now?
have fun, you've got some nice kit there.
(Bens rates are very reasonable and he knows his way around a caterfield)
Andy
the usual there is to get on the gas just before the rise on the exit and end up in the same place.
the beamer did show some nice lines, and a bit of coaching for the day would seem "cheaper" now?
have fun, you've got some nice kit there.
(Bens rates are very reasonable and he knows his way around a caterfield)
Andy
Ben, yes I would be very interested in your comments on my lap, any feedback on how to improve would be gratefully received, I spend a lot of time analysing other people's data, and decided to give it a go myself this year!
David's lap was not one of his flying laps, he was still warming the tyres up before he went for it, so it is probably not a good example, but mine was my best effort of the day.
I can see where I missed the apex on the entry in the Esses, so I could probably carry more speed there for sure.
By the way, if you ever want to borrow one of our systems to have a play with, just let me know.
David's lap was not one of his flying laps, he was still warming the tyres up before he went for it, so it is probably not a good example, but mine was my best effort of the day.
I can see where I missed the apex on the entry in the Esses, so I could probably carry more speed there for sure.
By the way, if you ever want to borrow one of our systems to have a play with, just let me know.
Ok here we go. I will try to explain as easily as I can.
Please note that this isn't a whole brief on use of vision, just an explanation of David's crash.
I spend a lot of time working on drivers vision in corners. what david is doing in Gerrards is limiting his vision to what he can see out of the front 'window' area of the car (in this case the vision between the forward area of the roll cage.
This leads to a limited line of sight of right hand bends. Drivers should always be looking for the point at which the inside and the outside of the circuit join and disapeer from sight. This is what advanced drivers call the Limit Point.
point 1` shows the approx limit point for a driver using full field of vision (LP) and the artificial limit point (ALP) created in the drivers vision by not looking to the right hand side of the window / roll cage.
This means the driver isn't looking as far ahead as possible and cannot react as quickly to making a mistake - as they don't know they've made it!
The real issue comes at point 2. The circuit disapeers over the brow so now the ALP becomes the top of the brow on the outside and importantly stays there until the driver crests the brow and can see the track again.
The driver sees the ALP getting nearer to the centre of the car so thinks that the corner is opening up and therefore reduces steering. We see David do this at approx point 2 and then follow points 3 and 4 straight off the circuit. He doesn't know anything about this until the brow and by then its too late.
The actual limit point at point 2 is invisible so you have to find a point that will line up approximately. In this case you can see the marshals box midway down the outside on the back straight. If David had been looking to that point he wouldn't have crashed.
Hope this helps and apologies for the poor diagram - I just traced it from google earth and then took a picture on the webcam.
Edited by BenElliottRacing on Monday 8th March 16:30
From a complete novice outsiders point of view:
Driver 1: Seemed to be quite light with the revs, seemed like you could have got quite a bit more out of the car with some more committed right footery
Driver 2: Lots of commitment but a lot less car control - It did seem that he pretty much drove straight off the circuit with plenty of time and space to have sorted himself out had he been looking ahead - I also felt that he was in too low a gear just before the incident which may have given him a little more turn in and traction - But thats just in my unraced opinion.
Like the car though
- but that grating noise sounded like it was doing something some real damage 
Driver 1: Seemed to be quite light with the revs, seemed like you could have got quite a bit more out of the car with some more committed right footery
Driver 2: Lots of commitment but a lot less car control - It did seem that he pretty much drove straight off the circuit with plenty of time and space to have sorted himself out had he been looking ahead - I also felt that he was in too low a gear just before the incident which may have given him a little more turn in and traction - But thats just in my unraced opinion.
Like the car though
- but that grating noise sounded like it was doing something some real damage Ben - thanks for the detailed explanation, that is really interesting! We are currently running a series of adverts and online articles with insights from driver coaches such as yourself. Would you be interested in contributing? We will post a bio and links to your website and it will go out to our user mailing list.
Our current article:
Advanced Circuit Driving Techniques - Compound Corners
Our current article:
Advanced Circuit Driving Techniques - Compound Corners
Guys
I have only just spotted this.
You are all entirely correct.
New to the circuit I arrived at what I thought was the apex far too early. The slight crest at the exit does obscure the view (especially in a Caterham) and I turned in to a false apex.
I knew I had as soon as I did it but let the car run wide rather than fighting it too much. I thought I could get away with running on the grass and gentle tease the car back on the track but obviously could not.
The Video VBox is invaluable for learning and although this was a costly error it would have been far worse if I was not able to analyse it in more details afterwards.
Thank you very much for all the advice on here, it is very helpful
David
I have only just spotted this.
You are all entirely correct.
New to the circuit I arrived at what I thought was the apex far too early. The slight crest at the exit does obscure the view (especially in a Caterham) and I turned in to a false apex.
I knew I had as soon as I did it but let the car run wide rather than fighting it too much. I thought I could get away with running on the grass and gentle tease the car back on the track but obviously could not.
The Video VBox is invaluable for learning and although this was a costly error it would have been far worse if I was not able to analyse it in more details afterwards.
Thank you very much for all the advice on here, it is very helpful
David
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