Norisring, 9th July 2013 - Another race; another new experience. Hard on the heels of the prestigious Masters of Formula 3, Indonesian Sean Gelael heads back to Germany for the sixth round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, which will be his first street race.
Street racing, of course, means the crash barriers are waiting at the edge of the circuit to catch out the unwary. If you make a mistake, it will most likely put you out of the race. And the Norisring circuit, where 16-year-old Gelael is racing on July 6th and 7th, is no exception.
Situated on the edge of the city of Nuremberg, the Norisring track runs around the spooky remains of a Nazi rally ground from World War Two. It was first used for racing in 1947, and today the annual event attracts enormous crowds to see the popular DTM touring car series as well as the international young guns of Formula 3.
Sean and his fellow racers will get up to speeds of 250km/h on the two ultra-wide straights, both of which funnel into very tight hairpins. Because of this, incidents and excitement are virtually guaranteed, and the Norisring races are renowned for being among the most thrilling of the year.
“It is a very important weekend,” says Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, team principal of the Double R Racing team that prepares Gelael’s Dallara-Mercedes. “The cars run very low downforce, which means we reduce the rear wing to maximise speed on the long straights. Because of that there is plenty of overtaking. Together with the great atmosphere, that makes it a highlight of the European championship.”
Running with low downforce makes racing cars trickier to drive, meaning that the two hairpins and the critical fast S-bend of the Norisring will be tougher for Sean and his 30 rivals. Fortunately, the Double R team tested the low-downforce set-up on the Austrian Red Bull Ring circuit.
“Sean adapted well to it,” says Hieatt, “and our drivers are as prepared as they possibly can be. Our difficulty is that all three of our drivers are completely new to the Norisring, so we have to work on getting our car as fast as possible in a straight line and concentrate on getting the most out of the brakes, which is crucial at the hairpins.”
The other element for success at the Norisring is survival. Last year, one of Double R’s drivers made his way from 11th on the grid to fourth at the finish without overtaking anybody – the rest all crashed out of his way!
“The drivers are not used to running so close to the walls,” adds Hieatt. “But they have to get to grips with it, and anyway this is ideal preparation for November’s Macau Grand Prix – Macau is also a street race, and is the most important Formula 3 event of the season.”
Gelael is now in his school holidays, meaning that starting from last weekend’s Masters of F3 he can stay in Europe for the run of races over the next few weeks, rather than flying home with the inevitable jetlag effects. Not only that, but the two-day Red Bull Ring test featured genuinely encouraging progress from the least-experienced driver in the hotly-competitive field.
“Sean found one and a half seconds per lap during the test compared to the racing we had there the previous weekend,” says Hieatt. “He did 700 kilometres and it was all about getting familiar with the circuit. He ended up going very well.” (ms/arl)
