A Race Engineers' Perspective
Rick Mayer, race engineer of the Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM team, takes a look ahead at this year's Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix race, July 10, 2016, at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, ON.Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) and Toni Vilander (Finland) return as drivers of the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTLM No. 62 after a sixth place finish at the recent Sahlen's 6 Hours of The Glen race in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series.
Rick Mayer, Risi Competizione Race EngineerGeneral: Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (still referred to as Mosport by many) is a short but fast 2.46 mile, 10-turn, natural terrain permanent road course situated just Northeast of Toronto, Canada. This track, like 'The Glen', has significant racing history. We will reach 260 kph/160 mph at the end of the long, uphill back straight before braking for Turn 8. All the classes are racing here this year, which wasn't the case last year, so traffic will play a big role in the race. The Track: Mosport has predominantly high speed corners but is very easy on brakes; the corner sequence is in decreasing speed to the braking zones and you never threshold brake. The track was repaved only a few years ago and the surface quality will depend, as always here, on how bad last winter was. The apex patches will change the grip throughout the corner and the ideal line will depend on where the grip is. This will also change as the track gains rubber throughout the event. Curbs do not really come into play at Mosport, in the past they have not been very usable. You don't want to go off track, as there is very little run-off relative to the speed of the corners...historically, if you go off track here, the car is usually damaged.Setup: With the long straight being important, you would like to run low downforce, to maximize speed, but you lose so much on the other sections it ends up being a quicker lap with a moderately high downforce setup. You need to match the downforce and drag to your peers, for top speed parity, in order to not lose position into Turns 5 and 8. The track has mainly fast corners, with little requirement for low speed power down, suiting a stiffer setup (i.e. anti-roll bars and springs). A stiffer setup typically gets you into, through, and off the faster corners better by maintaining the downforce more consistently (i.e. pitch control). Braking stability does not really come into play as you do not brake very hard or for long duration. Keeping the car from getting too light over the crests of the hills is also a setup concern. Damper work will help on the bumps, transitional entrance and exit platform stability, and crossing the crests of the hills, but dampers are not as important at Mosport as they are at bumpy circuits. Mosport is the easiest track that we go to all year on brakes, and we will run a lot of brake blocking to keep temperature in the brakes - they generally over-cool as there are no hard braking zones. This track is treacherous in the rain and we'll have to sort a wet setup; it usually rains during either testing or the race.
The Risi Ferrari 458 leads a pack of GTLM cars under the Michelin bridge at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2015The Race: This is the second 2 hours and 40-minute race of the season. We have all the classes competing together this year. There will be a large Pro-Am contingent. We expect many long full course cautions as off track excursions rarely happen without substantial damage. The Corvettes, Porsches, and Ferrari's would appear from Watkins to be in a similar BoP (Balance of Performance) window with the BMWs having superior power with a slight advantage over the later three makes. The Fords have a huge advantage currently with a BoP rules benefit no other car in the field can match. Watkins and Mosport are similar in respect to what it takes to go fast. The Fords 'should' easily run away with the race, just as they did at Watkins Glen. But this track is difficult to pass on and with all the traffic even harder. So you can't count anyone out. Luck, fast pit work and strategy will still play a large part in the outcome of the race. In short races the fastest car doesn't always win. The cars that are ahead after the last pit stops will determine who has a chance to run for a win.We could certainly use a good result here. Hopefully this won't jinx us, but Risi Competizione has been very successful here in the past with three class wins, three second place finishes and three pole positions from our last eight Canadian races. Hopefully this is a rebound race for us!
