Just one week ago the GP2 teams were racing at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria and with almost no time to breath the cars and drivers are now at Silverstone for round five of the 2016 GP2 Series.
The Red Bull Ring was a mixed weekend for the Racing Engineering team with Norman Nato and Jordan King finishing seventh and eighth in Saturday’s Feature Race but Sunday’s Sprint Race, held in very difficult conditions due to a wet track, saw Jordan led from start to finish without making a mistake to take his first win in the Series. It was a difficult race for Norman and he finished outside the points but he is still lying third in the Drivers’ Championship whilst Racing Engineering are now in second place in the Teams’ Championship.
Silverstone is not an easy track to overtake on so it will be important that both drivers qualify well and both Norman and Jordan have a good record in qualifying and, given their very strong race pace, both men will be amongst the favourites in what, so far, has proved to be a very competitive season.
The British track is hard on tyres due to the fast corners which result in high lateral energy loads which, in turn, leads to high degradation therefore Pirelli will be supplying the P Zero Orange hard tyre together with the Yellow soft compound for the two races.
1. Silverstone was first used for motorsport by a group of friends who set up an impromptu race in September 1947.2. Spectacular corner combinations with compression forces of up to 5g and an extremely fast race pace make this circuit one of the most strenuous.
3. While high speed is the key characteristic of Silverstone, there are also some slower and more technical parts of the circuit in these areas acceleration is particularly important.
4. Silverstone is the home race of our driver Jordan King. His home town Warwick is just 54km from the circuit.
5. At Silverstone the DRS (Drag Reduction System) zones are: Pit straight and Hangar straight.
6. The circuit has 18 corners: 10 to the right and 8 to the left.
7. The area between the Stowe and Vale corners is the area where the car needs the maximum amount of breaking force.
8. Last year, Racing Engineering driver’s Alexander Rossi finished second in the feature race.
9. The Vale curve is a critical point because cars often suffer from understeer but need a lot of momentum to exit quickly.
10. Last year, just shortly before the finish line, Arthur Pic pushed Racing Engineering’s driver Jordan King off the track which meant, that despite a fantastic race, he only finished in 22nd position.Facts1. The average speed in F1 is 230km/h in F1 and 210 km/h in GP2.
2. F1 top speed is 330 km/h – GP2 is 300 km/h.
3. F1 drivers will shift gear 46 times per lap against the 31 times that a GP2 driver will have to do so.
4. Pole position in F1 was set in 2015 at 1:32.248 – Pole position in GP2 in 2015 at 1:39.949.
5. Race distance is different: F1 goes around the circuit for 52 laps and GP2 does a total of 50 laps during its two races- 29 laps in Feature Race and 21 in the Sprint Race.
