Jeddah Corniche Circuit

SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX

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April 12, 2015

 

Another case of Jekyll and Hyde form for Swindon outfit as changeable conditions affect the race in Portugal.
A somewhat better showing form the boys in blue, white and gold around the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve than in the previous round. However the results left the team wishing for what might of been as they failed to capitalise on the potential of capturing more points.

Adam Rouse joined the team for his first competitive Supercup start with the team, alongside mainstay Philip Cullen. It marked the first time since the Austrian Superleague race in 2013 since the pair ran together as team mates.

Round Four - Portimao

Philip Cullen
Qualifying: 14th
Feature Race: 15th
Sprint Race: 7th


Adam Rouse
Qualifying: 17th
Feature Race: 19th
Sprint Race: 13th


Qualifying continues to provide the foundation of issues for the team. The immensely tight field spread leaves mere thousands of tenths separating drivers in the ultra competitive Supercup series. The threat of rain held off for most of the session, but saw a scramble by drivers to get out early to set times.

In the end, both drivers finished just either side of five tenths off pole position, which was only good enough for 14th and 17th positions. To emphasise how close the battles were up and down the field, less than a tenth of a second covered the top four with 27 of the 29 cars covered by a second a half.

Small margins, but with the team struggling to hit personal bests it leaves more work to do in the race and lowly qualifying has already shown this year to hurt the team's chances of a good points haul.

The heavens opened as the drivers went out to form up on the grid which saw the drivers take to the wet weather tyres. Philip was immediately hampered by a failure in his rfDynHud plug-in, leaving him without vital information for the entirety of the race. The mod, along with GID plug-in are popular with drivers for displaying information such as lap-times, accurate tyre conditions and weather information. On such a day, losing this tool caused the Irishman plenty of grief and aggravation as he had to rely solely on the scant information given to him through rFactor's in-game menu options.

Despite these issues, Cullen made it to the finish but not before making the wrong strategic call by pitting for slick tyres after fighting his way towards the top ten. Another quick trip back to the pits was warranted to put back on the wet weather tyres and sent him tumbling down the order.

Philip made a number of small errors, exasperated by the fact he was missing information usually provided by the plug-in. "It's silly, isn't it. I had no back-up plan in place and it just took me out of the zone. Should have been better than that but missing it on a day like today just compounded things and led to a bunch of silly errors which cost me points today".

Cullen eventually came home in 15th position, right on the tail of Marcel Rautter and Scott Berrisford.

Adam Rouse endured a difficult start to life in the Racing Aces PB machine. The Englishman struggled in the wet conditions, the first time he had run in them this year. Understeer was the issue of the day for him and he only felt comfortable in the car once the conditions started to dry.

An extra pit-stop due to a broken front wing killed his race one along with making the same strategic call as his teammate to pit for slicks at the wrong time led to a 19th place finish.

As the weather improved for the sprint race, so did the team's fortunes. The pair split the strategy with Cullen going on the primes and Rouse on the options. Adam had done little running on the prime tyre and his lowly grid slot led to the decision for the more attacking strategy that the team knew would require him to pit for a change of tyres.

The decision led to an attacking race by Rouse which ultimately yielded him points for finishing 13th. It could have easily been more had he not been squeezed out on the opening lap which sent him tumbling down to the back of the field. In the process, he achieved the eight fastest lap of the race, on par with a number of other drivers who took the more aggressive strategy route and proving that the veteran racer has lost none of his speed.

Philip was also rewarded with a solid finish in the sprint race. Having seemingly overcome his start line issues, Cullen leapt towards the top ten, before falling back as the quicker option runners made their way through the field. His race saw him compete in a race long duel with several drivers, including Jonathan Holmes and Marcel Rautter over the tail end of the top ten.

Some late aggressive moves and issues for drivers ahead saw Philip come across the line in seventh place, just ahead of the hard charging Danny Asbury who he had shared the grid with and was on the more aggressive option tyre strategy. More positives came looking at the time sheets afterwards where Philip ended up as one of the quickest drivers using the prime tyre.

A solid haul of points in the sprint race erased what was by all accounts a poor showing in the feature race. The team packs up and heads to Turkey now where they hope to find more consistency throughout the race meeting and hopefully a greater haul of points for the team.