I learnt a lot today in Suzuka. In the first session this morning everyone ran new tires and my kart felt quite good. I had a few carby issues which was costing me time down the straights so we changed the carby for the second session which fixed the problem.
In the second and third sessions I was around 7th and 8th fastest for my group, however the kart developed a lot of oversteer on the exit of the corner. This led to the kart losing revs on exit and costing me time. The team thinks that because I am so tall I am working the kart a lot more than the other drivers in the team.
In the final session we tested our ‘B’ chassis. It had a lot less grip in the rear in comparison to the A chassis, and this feedback was similar to what the other drivers thought of the B chassis. The team says that if the track starts to rubber up then this chassis will be perfect for those conditions.
I need to find some more time if I am going to stay with the leader’s pace tomorrow. I feel that a lot of that time can be made up in my driving, as well as little improvements to the chassis set up and engine.
Tomorrow morning we have a 15 minute warm up at around 9:30am. My teammates and I have each saved a new set of our allocated tires for the warm up so we can get a feel of track conditions before qualifying.
Hopefully I can put down a quick time during qualifying!
Will update you all tomorrow night,
Jake
