RE: McLaren test driver job goes to Kenny Brack

[Onehp]

Grattis till nya jobbet!

I didn't know he had a hand already in the 720s, but not so hard to understand as there are few cars that are more capable.

The GT40 vid reminds me about driving quickly yet safely (hopefully) during winter as some do in the Scandinavian countryside, where learning how to deal with ever changing, instantly, surface conditions even while a bit sideways....

Edited by Onehp on Thursday 24th May 14:52

[MKnight702]

IIRC that's Adrian Newey's GT40. Will he be allowed to drive it again now Brack works for the opposition??

[GCH]

That Nürburgring lap is mental...and check his hands from the 6 min mark.

[RacerMike]

Interesting that McLaren seem to use ‘racing drivers’ rather than engineers or vehicle dynamicists to do their chief test driver rolls. In the rest of the automotive world, most of the driving assessment work is done by people who have done that sort of vehicle assessment for a long time. It can be quite different to the skills involved in driving a car fast, and assessing a car and understanding what the customer wants are two different things.

Not to say there aren’t a lot of people out there in Vehicle dynamics who also race, but I understand McLaren are fairly keen (or at least were keen) to stop/not allow any of their non racing driver test drivers do dynamic tests. If it was just one or two people, you’d assume it was PR, but genuinely most of their performance driving is done by people who aren’t specifically trained as engineees. Chris Goodwin was actually a bit of an exception having had experience as an engineer and a driver before his time at McLaren.

Great gig for Kenny to get. It’s what most ex pro’s dream of really!

[Maldini35]

RacerMike said:

Interesting that McLaren seem to use ‘racing drivers’ rather than engineers or vehicle dynamicists to do their chief test driver rolls. In the rest of the automotive world, most of the driving assessment work is done by people who have done that sort of vehicle assessment for a long time. It can be quite different to the skills involved in driving a car fast, and assessing a car and understanding what the customer wants are two different things.

Not to say there aren’t a lot of people out there in Vehicle dynamics who also race, but I understand McLaren are fairly keen (or at least were keen) to stop/not allow any of their non racing driver test drivers do dynamic tests. If it was just one or two people, you’d assume it was PR, but genuinely most of their performance driving is done by people who aren’t specifically trained as engineees. Chris Goodwin was actually a bit of an exception having had experience as an engineer and a driver before his time at McLaren.

Great gig for Kenny to get. It’s what most ex pro’s dream of really!

McLaren have a permanent test base in Spain staffed by engineers who dynamically test the cars - I’ve been there seen it and met the engineers. Believe me, they do dynamically test the cars. Sure, Kenny has been made the chief but he has plenty of engineering nous in his team.
It’s naive to think that a large engineering team doesn’t performance test the cars.

Besides, the proof of the pudding and all that - McLaren customers and journalists alike seem to love the way McLarens drive and handle - so perhaps rival manufacturers should take a leaf out of their book.

Edited by Maldini35 on Friday 25th May 07:11

Edited by Maldini35 on Friday 25th May 07:58

Edited by Maldini35 on Friday 25th May 08:57

Edited by Maldini35 on Friday 25th May 09:02

[RacerMike]

Maldini35 said:

RacerMike said:

Interesting that McLaren seem to use ‘racing drivers’ rather than engineers or vehicle dynamicists to do their chief test driver rolls. In the rest of the automotive world, most of the driving assessment work is done by people who have done that sort of vehicle assessment for a long time. It can be quite different to the skills involved in driving a car fast, and assessing a car and understanding what the customer wants are two different things.

Not to say there aren’t a lot of people out there in Vehicle dynamics who also race, but I understand McLaren are fairly keen (or at least were keen) to stop/not allow any of their non racing driver test drivers do dynamic tests. If it was just one or two people, you’d assume it was PR, but genuinely most of their performance driving is done by people who aren’t specifically trained as engineees. Chris Goodwin was actually a bit of an exception having had experience as an engineer and a driver before his time at McLaren.

Great gig for Kenny to get. It’s what most ex pro’s dream of really!

McLaren have a permanent test base in Spain staffed by engineers who dynamically test the cars - I’ve been there seen it and met the engineers. Believe me, they do dynamically test the cars. Sure, Kenny has been made the chief but he has plenty of engineering nous in his team.
It’s naive to think that a large engineering team doesn’t performance test the cars.

Besides, the proof of the pudding and all that - McLaren customers and journalists alike seem to love the way McLarens drive and handle - so perhaps rival manufacturers should take a leaf out of their book.

Their workshop is at Idiada yes, and I’m there with reasonable regularity/see plenty of their cars driven around, but most of the work they do there is durability and engine cal work. They do, do some of their dynamics work there, but a friend of mine worked for them when the 12C was being developed. He lived out there for 3 years, and used to do a lot of the testing. They weren’t however allowed to do any of the dynamics work. That was restricted to the ‘pro’ racing drivers only which is fairly bizarre! You also rarely see McLaren at any of the other main test facilities other than Sweden and Idiada.

Not saying it doesn’t work for them. They have a pretty loyal base of customers. Having driven a 12c fairy hard, I’d say it shows that it’s set up by racing drivers rather than road car engineers. It struck me that it was incredibly capable and very well set up as a race car. Huge amounts of traction, even at low speed, precise steering, good solid brake feel and a slightly understeer led balance. Basically everything you want from a car to set a fast lap time. It weirdly isn’t that fun though. I believe the 650S and 570 are better for this.

It’s not really meant as a criticism, but it is interesting to me that they chose to do things so differently for no particularly clear reason! I guess it’s the fact they were a race team first...

[J2daG1990]

That lap in the wet in the GT40 is crazy!

Was he just showing off? Why not short shift to prevent wheel spin or stop giving it 100% throttle...? He could have gone a lot quicker.

Not for one second doubting his skills as a race driver.

[Kawasicki]

J2daG1990 said:

That lap in the wet in the GT40 is crazy!

Was he just showing off? Why not short shift to prevent wheel spin or stop giving it 100% throttle...? He could have gone a lot quicker.

Not for one second doubting his skills as a race driver.

All the other drivers are short shifting, carefully modulating the throttle, preventing wheelspin...whereas Brack is driving at the limit..which means he will regularly go over it...on average though he is just driving faster than everyone else. In other words real limit driving means (especially in the wet) plenty of times where the car is over the limit.

[anonymous-user]

J2daG1990 said:

... He could have gone a lot quicker.

...

Could he? All the other cars look like they're in reverse. I'm pretty sure he knows how to go faster if he could. Anyway, here's another clip of the man going for it up the hill at FoS in my friend's F1...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3QM63J116o

[ecsrobin]

fblm said:

Could he? All the other cars look like they're in reverse. I'm pretty sure he knows how to go faster if he could. Anyway, here's another clip of the man going for it up the hill at FoS in my friend's F1...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3QM63J116o

Love this video from a trip to the pub in that car! https://youtu.be/cPfVhvW1-cA