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Delli Colli, working with Rubens Barrichello |
27/07/07 |
Gabriele
Delli Colli, the 36-year-old Italian race engineer for Rubens
Barrichello, will be going to the German Grand Prix on a high. 'His'
driver, Rubens Barrichello, scored his first win of the season after a
superb drive and a strong weekend at the British Grand Prix two weeks
ago.
It was a performance that did not really come as a surprise to Gabriele,
around a track that both he and Barrichello know better than most other
circuits on the Grand Prix calendar.
After leaving Alfa Romeo's touring car team when they stopped racing,
Gabriele came into F1 with Minardi and then worked for Sauber and Jordan
before joining Ferrari. His year at Jordan, just across the street from
Silverstone, meant that he, like Barrichello, after his early racing
career and spell as a Jordan driver, both knew the quirks of the
Silverstone track by heart.
'It was also one of the few tracks that we can test at before the race,
so we had a pretty good idea of how the car should be set-up before we
even arrived for the race. After that, it was just a case of fine tuning
it for the race and the conditions of the day' - points out Gabriele,
which is where his and Barrichello's local knowledge gave them the edge.
Even on a track where the team has not run for a year, like Hockenheim,
the extensive simulation programs, which Ferrari run at the factory
before each race, saves a lot of vital track time sorting out the basic
set-up during the reduced practice time available to the drivers this
year.
In some teams there is a 'them and us' rivalry between the two drivers,
with only limited sharing of information, but as Gabriele is quick to
point out, Scuderia Ferrari is a team effort in every sense of the word,
even between the two drivers themselves, however much they might want to
beat each other on the track.
'At the end of the day, the only important thing is that it is Ferrari
that has to win. We are a team and I am working for Ferrari. It does not
matter who wins. The best thing is that both cars do well. That is the
final target of my job and the team job'.
'I know outsiders might think the team is divided into two parts, but
there are two race cars and the collaboration is very open. If I find
something good, or if Michael's engineers find something, then we share
it. Because we have very little time during a race weekend, so you are
obliged to divide the workload. One car works in one direction and the
other in another. Before qualifying or before the race, we have an open
discussion about what we have done and we try to share what we have
found'.
'Most of the times, the two cars are very similar. The basic set-up of
the car is similar and then there are only little details, which each
driver prefers. It is like a suit - the shape is the same, but then you
have little things to adjust, because the driver drives in a different
way. We have to divide the work, or it would take too much time. It is
normal for one driver to concentrate, for example, on tyres, while the
other is working on downforce levels, or something else. Then in the
evening we decide what is the best way to go'.
'We know the difference between the two drivers in terms of what set up
they like. Every run you do, Ross Brawn collects information from both
cars and he then feeds everyone with all the good things we have found
or the things that have not worked. Otherwise, you would not get a good
race result' - he explains.
Every step of the way, every adjustment on the car is backed up by
mountains of telemetry data that has to be studied and acted upon. So,
has the old-fashioned idea of an experienced race engineer that could
make or break a driver's weekend now become obsolete?
Not according to Gabriele. His understanding of the track, the car and,
above all, his driver, and the engineer's ability to improvise is just
as vital as the telemetry that backs up those judgments.
'Improvisation is still a big part of a race engineer's job. You can
simulate everything, and you have really good support from simulation
programmes. In the factory there are also a lot of people studying the
data. However, what is important in terms of improvisation is to
understand the right moment to make a change on the car, or how to
assess a tyre compound. It is the little details you have to work with
to get the best out of the car set-up and the whole package, in terms of
tyres, downforce levels and so on at the precise moment that you need
it'.
'The simulation is good because you can prepare a lot of things. But
with experience, you know which is the most probable situation at any
point during the race weekend. You can think about different solutions
to see which is the best and be prepared. The difficulty of the job is
being ready at the right time. Sometimes there is a right moment to test
something or there is a right moment to step back a bit and say, let's
leave the car as it is. For the driver it is a question of having
confidence in the car. At some point it is better for him to drive a car
he knows at the limit of its performance'.
'The psychology comes into knowing when the driver has to go out and do
a good job with what he has, or whether you should still be pushing for
a solution that you think will improve the car. There is a common belief
that in the future our job will be even more controlled by computers but
in the end, drivers are human and sometimes it is difficult to
understand them. A race engineer's job is to understand them and know
when is the right time to do something'. |
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