AC Multiclass Abarth500/Mazda MX5@RedBullRing, Wed 6th July 2022

[Shed 17]

After a week away from racing and getting home just in time for race server practice, I was surprised to be competitive and at the sharp end of practice and qualifying times.
The Abarth has always been a bit slow off the start compared with the Mazda and my P3 turned into P4 as Thomas slipped by into T1. But the Abarth powered by on the straight and then Ernie had a poor exit from T3 and I found myself in P2 behind Allan.
The excitement got to me by T9 and I went wide allowing Ernie to slip by and go after Allan. A steady session and after the pit stop I came out right behind Mika and we had a good battle for several laps.
Then Thomas pitted and got the overcut on me as I was ahead before I made my stop. The Abarth top end power and a small error by Thomas had me right on his tail but I was a bit mean with my fuel top up and had to do some fuel and tyre management in the last two laps which allowed Robert to close in.
But a P4 finish was a nice result with some great battles along the way.
Thanks to Han for organising and well done to the podium. This combination promotes good racing as while the cars have different characteristics, braking and corner speed, the racing is really close on tracks like this and in my opinion better than the Audi/ Mazda combo. I saw that the Silverstone meeting was a Mazda lock out but with multi class racing your battles are with the same class car, but I get Ernie’s point that it is always nice to finish ahead of the faster cars on the day.

P.S. Baku in the Formula Mad next week is going to be fun, don’t be put off by the super quick steering, just use a lot less input and take 10 minutes to get your brain into gear as the grip is awesome.

 

[HF2000]

Fun it was indeed. As I said I was quite surprised to see the Abarth being competitive on this track. Especially T4 is so hard with a car that has a lot of understeer. And the straights aren't really long enough to profit the superior top speed of the Abarth.

But in the race I noticed that if you had a good exit in T1 the ascending straight towards T2 was a good place to come beside the Mazda and do a 'Max' overtake in T2.

I had a reasonable start and in the first laps I had an intense battle with Kimi in which we switched positions a couple of times. When I went wide in T9 and came back on track I hit Kimi causing him to spin (very sorry for that Kimi, it ruined both our chances of a top 5 result and some nice battles with Paul and Robert). I waited for Kimi to recover and saw a lot of cars pass. Began racing again at P13 so a lot of catching up and overtaking to do.
So I had a lot of nice battles with Mazda's in my first stint and again with the same guys after my pitstop with tyre change.
Paulo and Kimi had a long battle which gave me the chance to close the gap on them and after Paulo had a moment in T1 I could overtake him.
I finished 10th and 4th of the Abarths.

Compliments for Paul, Paulo and Kimi who had great pace with their Abarths.
Congrats to the podium and special thanks to Ernie who put Allan back in his place!

Next week a one time event with the MFT01 kart on GPK Baku.
I'm doing this to give the faithful Wednesday drivers the chance to experience this F1 like racing. The kart has enormous grip and also DRS.
As Paul explained it takes some laps to get used to the very direct steering but it's a lot of fun after that. So I really hope that you will give it a chance and that we will have some 15+ drivers.
The week after will be Abarth/Mazda again, probably Magione as we don't have Paul Ricard on S.GP.

 

[Taj Johal]

I will try the karts again, the steering is very quick and direct, still not used to it and the small tight tracks, but I reckon they could be fun once I get used to them

 

[HF2000]

As promised next week event: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/mad-formula-mft01-baku-wed-13th-july-2022.241324/

 

[Dzul]

The week after will be Abarth/Mazda again, probably Magione as we don't have Paul Ricard on S.GP.

Is then Magny Cours available perhaps?

 

[HF2000]

Is then Magny Cours available perhaps?

Actually it is. But it's a totally different track and I think the mod is not good. You can cut off the chicanes with a lot of time gain. And I expect Magione a real blast with the Abarth/Mazda combination. A short circuit with a long straight and very slow corners! So with an Abarth sector and a Mazda sector.