Setup notes, race debriefs, and what the work is teaching. Newest first.
Shifting by the light is wrong more often than it is right. A gear's job is to put force at the wheel, and at any speed one gear does it best. Here is how to find the real shift points from the car's own data, and why the obvious gear through the Okayama sweeper is the slow one.
The lap came down to 1:18.608 and Garage61 moved to third of 2634. Yesterday's brake problem is what moved it. I'm carrying the brake deeper now and the slow corners gave the time back.
The car pushed in the slow corners and I was forcing it round with first gear. One change to the differential fixed it and the lap came down to 1:19.0. The bigger problem is older: I let go of the brake too early.
Two races at Barcelona, two retirements, and the lap times had nothing to do with either. One went to a fuel tank, one to a fight I didn't need. Lap one and the pace held, and the rest is checklist and discipline.
Two races at Barcelona. The first was pole to a clean finish over eighteen laps, the opening-lap problem solved from the hardest seat to hold. The second was top-split pace and my tightest stint yet, undone by the inside dive under braking. One wall down, the next one named.
Finished P13, a lap down, on a hot greasy track. My most consistent race stint yet, and the result came down to qualifying fuel left in the car and a pit-lane penalty, not a lap time.
Season 3 opener at Barcelona. Five races, one finish, and the finish was a win. The other four ended on the opening lap or just after. My pace was in range all day. Surviving lap one wasn't.
The keeper runs full-soft anti-roll bars at both ends. Both available directions were tested and rejected, with seat feel and telemetry agreeing on every verdict.
A full lab day ran on a rejected front P-rod left in the car overnight. The clean re-baseline confirmed A9, rear camber -2.3 was rejected as a true single variable, and the diff preload bracket mapped to a shape call rather than a pace call.
A9 stayed in the keeper slot after the A10 and A11 platform changes failed to beat it in the controlled comparison.