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March 28, 2012
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Kernow Sport achieved its first aim of the 2012 season in
Round 2 at China last week, by scoring their first ever Superleague points and
becoming the first 'new' team to achieve that honour this season. The teams'
second aim, of scoring a podium finish, seems a bit further off, especially
with the evident supremacy of the Midnight team, and the hot contestation
behind them amongst teams such as previous champions Red Archer and Nordsjoen,
along with Draig, and the 'upgraders of the week' Red 5.
Mark: "A podium will be our next step to achieve. But we
understand it could take a bit more time to become a realistic target given the
current position of our car relative to others. We're a new team and thus it
will naturally befall us that we potentially drop behind other teams early in
the season development-wise. But to have therefore achieved our first points so
soon thanks to a terrific drive from Simon in China was a huge relief and boost
for the squad. We're more excited now to get on and score some more, though Abu
Dhabi could prove difficult for us, Hungary will see a major upgrade for the
car. It will be seen if we can continue our development at a steady rate as the
year progresses. Hopefully we can turn ourselves into regular point scorers and
finish ahead of some established teams in the standings.
"My own races so far haven't gone very well. But last time
out Simon showed what our car is currently capable of and I hope to be in a
better supporting position from now on."
Regarding his weekend in Shanghai, Simon had this to say on
reflection of how his event went: "Heading into the weekend, I remained
pessimistic off the back of a short Melbourne GP - testing laptimes were quite
off the pace here in China too and I felt with our development program not yet
in full swing, these were times for just trying to consolidate points finishes
and for understanding the car, ready for when our big updates arrive. As a new
team we're quite limited on what we can do but I'm confident of our approach in
the long run, Mark has been doing great work behind the scenes and despite our
low budget, we're still keeping up with some of the big names. As of right now
though, the car is lacking aerodynamically which is not great at this track
especially - many high speed long radius corners, but also a 1.2km straight to
compensate for, demanding a good drag/downforce package. I found a bit more lap
time after tweaking the suspension more though, so I just looked forward to the
race.
Qualifying was satisfactory, managed to grab P9 and the car felt a bit better
after adding some rake angle and other things at the last minute - Mark was
struggling a bit but I know what he's capable of in race trim so I thought both
of us could make decent progress. As the lights went out I got a decent getaway
but had to lift to avoid contact with the cars ahead. I ended up following the
Ruud-Tom-Ojay train for the entire first stint and despite a bizarre spin the
pace wasn't too bad. At the end of the first stint though, I misjudged the grip
of the tyres braking for the pit entry and got a drive-thru penalty. That was
frustrating and cost me almost 20 seconds so the rest of the race was just
about catching Ojay for more points, there was no threat behind. Entering the
final stint I could see the gap closing, but I had to keep the discipline to
look after the tyres. The gap to Ojay dropped to 2 seconds by the end of the
race but he was just too fast in the end and he finished ahead of me, but 8th
place isn't bad - the car has no upgrades at the moment so I look forward to
what we can achieve with the upgrades, it's also nice to get Kernow's first
points already!
I ended up hitting a lot of front wings in the race and somehow didn't get any
damage, Mark was unfortunate though to hit one and get a puncture from it -
that combined with engine trouble at the start really ruined his race which is
a shame, but with upgrades getting closer and closer these are good times for
Kernow. I'm looking forward to the next race!"
Round 2 at China last week, by scoring their first ever Superleague points and
becoming the first 'new' team to achieve that honour this season. The teams'
second aim, of scoring a podium finish, seems a bit further off, especially
with the evident supremacy of the Midnight team, and the hot contestation
behind them amongst teams such as previous champions Red Archer and Nordsjoen,
along with Draig, and the 'upgraders of the week' Red 5.
Mark: "A podium will be our next step to achieve. But we
understand it could take a bit more time to become a realistic target given the
current position of our car relative to others. We're a new team and thus it
will naturally befall us that we potentially drop behind other teams early in
the season development-wise. But to have therefore achieved our first points so
soon thanks to a terrific drive from Simon in China was a huge relief and boost
for the squad. We're more excited now to get on and score some more, though Abu
Dhabi could prove difficult for us, Hungary will see a major upgrade for the
car. It will be seen if we can continue our development at a steady rate as the
year progresses. Hopefully we can turn ourselves into regular point scorers and
finish ahead of some established teams in the standings.
"My own races so far haven't gone very well. But last time
out Simon showed what our car is currently capable of and I hope to be in a
better supporting position from now on."
Regarding his weekend in Shanghai, Simon had this to say on
reflection of how his event went: "Heading into the weekend, I remained
pessimistic off the back of a short Melbourne GP - testing laptimes were quite
off the pace here in China too and I felt with our development program not yet
in full swing, these were times for just trying to consolidate points finishes
and for understanding the car, ready for when our big updates arrive. As a new
team we're quite limited on what we can do but I'm confident of our approach in
the long run, Mark has been doing great work behind the scenes and despite our
low budget, we're still keeping up with some of the big names. As of right now
though, the car is lacking aerodynamically which is not great at this track
especially - many high speed long radius corners, but also a 1.2km straight to
compensate for, demanding a good drag/downforce package. I found a bit more lap
time after tweaking the suspension more though, so I just looked forward to the
race.
Qualifying was satisfactory, managed to grab P9 and the car felt a bit better
after adding some rake angle and other things at the last minute - Mark was
struggling a bit but I know what he's capable of in race trim so I thought both
of us could make decent progress. As the lights went out I got a decent getaway
but had to lift to avoid contact with the cars ahead. I ended up following the
Ruud-Tom-Ojay train for the entire first stint and despite a bizarre spin the
pace wasn't too bad. At the end of the first stint though, I misjudged the grip
of the tyres braking for the pit entry and got a drive-thru penalty. That was
frustrating and cost me almost 20 seconds so the rest of the race was just
about catching Ojay for more points, there was no threat behind. Entering the
final stint I could see the gap closing, but I had to keep the discipline to
look after the tyres. The gap to Ojay dropped to 2 seconds by the end of the
race but he was just too fast in the end and he finished ahead of me, but 8th
place isn't bad - the car has no upgrades at the moment so I look forward to
what we can achieve with the upgrades, it's also nice to get Kernow's first
points already!
I ended up hitting a lot of front wings in the race and somehow didn't get any
damage, Mark was unfortunate though to hit one and get a puncture from it -
that combined with engine trouble at the start really ruined his race which is
a shame, but with upgrades getting closer and closer these are good times for
Kernow. I'm looking forward to the next race!"
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