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July 02, 2019

 

Turkish Grand Prix winner Fabio Sixta helps to preview Round 9 of the WTF1 Superleague

We have arrived at raceweek for Round 9 of the Superleague season. Silverstone is the host for the British Grand Prix, and here is the preview for the home of British Motorsport.

The first sector has a bit of everything. Abbey and Farm curves make up a fast right and left combination, and lead into the braking zone for Village. The tight left of The Loop and the kink at Aintree will take the drivers down the first DRS straight and into Brooklands.

Sector two takes in the long right-hander of Luffield, before a blast through Woodcote and the old pit straight. Then we hit the iconic corners. High speed entry into Copse flows into Maggots, Becketts and Chapel - the challenging switchbacks. The drivers will make their way down the Hanger Straight and into the final sector.

Stowe corner is a great chance to overtake, with the exit running downhill into Vale and Club corner to finish the lap around the historic Silverstone Circuit.

Here?s Fabio?s take on the upcoming round:

?Silverstone is one of the most traditional circuits in the Formula 1 calendar, so it?s a pleasure that this circuit is also in our calendar. The key to being fast on this circuit is having a well-balanced car with nearly maximum downforce. The tyres will play an important role too because it seems that the tyre wear is high, compared to other circuits that we have already raced at this season. Silverstone is also known as a circuit where rain is no rarity. I?m sure many drivers are looking forward to this race.



One of the main features of the Superleague season this year is that qualifying has been ridiculously tight through the field:


?It looks like qualifying is critical this season because it?s so hard to overtake other guys because of the strong dirty air. There are many corners which are critical for lap time here. In my opinion there are four corners that can punish just a little mistake.

?The first area is Brooklands and Luffield - It?s so hard to hit the apex of Brooklands because braking at the right time is so difficult. The corner exit of Luffield is also very critical for lap time because the car tends to oversteer very easily.

?Then you have Becketts, an ultra-fast right-hander. It?s necessary to hit the apex perfectly because otherwise you lose so much time. So maybe this is the most critical corner for losing lap time.

?Stowe is another very tricky corner where you can lose much time. Especially for me, this corner hasn?t been the easiest in the past.?


Fabio has already touched upon the possibility of tricky weather conditions at Silverstone, and with rain affecting the race in Canada two weeks ago, how do the teams track the weather pre-race.

?About 3-5 days before race day we are watching on different websites how the conditions might be on race day. So, if there is a high probability of having a wet race, we try to prepare our car for wet conditions, but it is not easy to simulate these conditions because you usually don?t practice with more than 3-4 other cars. This means that you won?t get a similar drier line like you would on race day.

?This aspect is nice because you must react to the different conditions without really practicing it. During the race many teams have a race engineer who is also looking for the forecast, and if there is a possibility of rain. This aspect is very important for planning or changing strategy during the race.?


Consistency has been a fundamental part of Sixta?s season. But how is this achieved?


?I have a great team which works very well together. My teammate Matthias [Muuss] is a hard-working driver who is doing a really great job for the team by working on the setup. Our team manager Nikos [Evangelidakis] is also working on our setup and doing a great job in developing our car.

?We have other drivers in the background who are also helping us. I am really happy with the first half of the season. I didn?t expect to be 4th in the championship after eight races because the Superleague grid is amazing.

?I also try to help the team as much as possible, but I am not able to test as much as Matthias. So, I plan about three or four evenings over the two weeks to get ready for the official race. So, I benefit a lot from Matthias? and Nikos? work.?


Round 9 of the WTF1 Superleague takes place on Thursday 4th July at 8pm, on the official GPVWC YouTube Channel.