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| Alexander Rossi - An American in Europe |
One of the mandates of eFormulaCarNews.com is to give our readers an inside look into the world of junior formula car racing. With that in mind, EFCN is proud to present a new regular segment of one of North America's leading young drivers racing in Europe, Alexander Rossi. In what will be an on-going blog, the Californian will talk about the pursuit of his dream of racing in Formula One via junior open-wheel racing in Europe. Make sure to check back throughout the year, as Rossi details both his triumphs and challenges abroad.
 | Alexander Rossi impressed many with his performance in and out of the car during his Formula One testing debut in Spain
(Photo: Team Rossi Motorsports - Dawn Rossi) |
Making an Impression in F1
December 11, 2009
The reality of getting the chance to drive a modern day Formula One car did not actually hit me until Monday evening (December 1), when I did my final seat fitting in the BMW Sauber F1 Team garage at the Circuito de Jerez. As I was making sure that there were no areas of discomfort, the car was switched on and the steering wheel came to life. While the wheel is quite impressive to look at when it is disconnected from the car, once it is turned on, you feel as though you have entered another world. As the complexities of my surroundings were brought to the surface, I realized that the next day would probably equate to the best experience of my life.
That night, I felt like a little boy on Christmas Eve as I had a desperate time trying to fall asleep, as images of race cars were dancing about in my head. I kept replaying my career to this point from the early days in karting, all the way through my successes and disappointments in open-wheel competition. The chance to drive a Formula One car is a dream for many, and as I fell asleep I knew that my dream would come true in a few short hours.
At 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after 45 minutes of going over the day’s schedule with the multiple engineers, I rolled out of the garage for my installation lap. When they started the car up for the first time with me inside at the controls, I could not hold back the smile. After receiving the thumbs up to pull out of the garage, I was hit once more with the realization that I was in the most advanced race car on Earth as the clutch, engine, and gearbox were in pure harmony with each other. The emotions that ran through me while rolling down pit lane in the BMW Sauber F1.09 are feelings that I will hold onto for the rest of my life. As I passed the Red Bull garages, the pit lane speed limit line was soon underneath me allowing me the freedom to turn off the pit limiter and I went for it. I was at the exit of pit lane and in fourth gear in a blink of an eye. Those four seconds were so impactful that I would have flown to the ends of the Earth just to have had that one experience.
By turn two, I could feel the unbelievable quality of the machine that was the result of thousands of man hours, millions of dollars, and 10 solid months of development. Everything worked absolutely perfectly and the tarmac felt as though it was a glass surface. I spent the majority of the lap with my mouth open, as even on intermediate tires the level of grip was something that I had never experienced before. Even on a frosty track, lacking rubber and with some areas covered by grass and dust, the car never felt unnerved. My one install lap ended much too quickly, and as I returned to pit lane and got out of the car, I simply could not wait for the next session to commence.
A mere 30 minutes later, I was back in the car to begin our testing program of finding a baseline setup. The program schedule consisted of four, six-lap runs that would take place before the lunch break. As the laps ticked by, I was gaining more and more confidence in the car and we were getting the car very close to a neutral set-up. With an hour to go before lunch, we put on a fresh set of tires and I was able to run a quick lap that shot us to the top of the time sheets, where we would remain for the rest of the morning session.
While at lunch, I spent some time reflecting on the morning sessions - my performance and my debrief with the team’s engineers. I realized that I was completely comfortable pushing the car to the limit, and that I was not having to change my driving style. This was very encouraging to me, because as mentioned in my last blog, we had put much effort into my preparation for this day by pursuing opportunities to test in the GP2 series. I was finding that the F1 car performed very similar to the GP2 car allowing me to quickly gain confidence and provide useful feedback to the team.
 | Rossi's pre-test training and preparations ensured he was quickly up to speed and comfortable in the Sauber BMW F1 car
(Photo: Team Rossi Motorsports - Dawn Rossi) |
Although I was finding many similarities, I wanted to highlight and explain the differences of two items that stuck out the most in mind.
The power steering…wow, the power steering. When I went into a heavy braking zone for the first time, I almost tossed the car into the wall as there was a touch of rear lock up and what I thought would be a standard steering correction actually resulted in being a correction 10 times the magnitude of that in a GP2 car with no power assist.
The lateral grip is something that I cannot mentally process into words at this time. In every car that I had driven up to this point, the limit of speed that you could carry through a corner was determined by the amount of lateral forces that the tires and car could take. Try to imagine a car where no matter how fast you pushed the car it was still with you and gave you the confidence for the next lap to go in even quicker.
If I can try to explain, there are two turns (5 & 8) that particularly stand out, because the entry is so quick that I would turn in first before I went to the brakes, and then drop the car down one or two gears. As a race car driver, this is how I knew that I was in the most elite machine made in the world.
After lunch, I was looking at a very busy afternoon that would eventually see me running 60 laps in a four hour period. We spent the majority of the time doing aerodynamics testing for the 2010 car, which consisted of many cruise control, yes, you read correctly, one function on the steering wheel is actually a speed setting button that will keep the car set at a specific km/h on a straight away which allows for consistent data runs.
We completed our program with no dramas, and while we were not going for optimum pace, our laps were extremely consistent and no mistakes were made, which was something that the team was very excited about. The day ended with us in P7, one second off, which was something that everyone was quite happy about, considering we never ran a light fuel load or a qualifying set-up.
As the day came to a close, I was pleased that I had felt completely comfortable in not only a Formula One car, but a Formula One environment as well. What was even more encouraging was my physical training preparation had been a success. I had completed 82 laps at a circuit known to be physically demanding, and with a little more work I feel confident that I could run a full length race distance as well.
Since December 2nd, I have been asked many times what I thought of the car and my answer remains the same, “It was incredible to drive, but in reality it did not seem that fast.” People are somewhat perplexed by this answer, as it doesn’t make sense to them how I could be saying the words that a Formula One car did not seem that fast. The only answer I have is, preparation.
Since winning the Formula BMW World Finals in December 2008, I recognized the significance of the opportunity that this one day would hold for me. I knew that if I wanted to be an asset to the team and truly be able to experience what an F1 car had to offer, I had to be in a position to handle it. I have to say Thank You to the three GP2 teams that I have worked with the past couple of months. I feel that their input and advice, combined with the time spent in the car directly influenced the positive results that I was able to achieve at this test.
2009 is coming to a close, and while I am sad to say goodbye to a year that saw me compete full time in Europe for the first time, as well as my first participation in the pinnacle of motorsports, I am really looking forward to seeing what 2010 holds. At this point, it is out of my control, but response seems to be very positive for the coming year. While I will enjoy my time back in California for the Christmas holidays, I cannot wait to get back to Europe to begin training and preparing so that I will be ready to fight for more wins and more podiums.
Thank you to my sponsors, supporters, family, friends and fans. I wouldn’t be here without you. The next time that I will talk to you I will have a lot of new information to share, so I guess all that is left to say is Merry Christmas and God Bless.
 | Alexander Rossi impressed many onlookers with his performance during his GP2 Asia Series debut
(Photo: GP2 Series Media Services) |
American Shines in GP2 Asia Series Debut
November 27, 2009
Another venture of my European formula car career kicked off with Rounds One and Two of the GP2 Asia Series at the stunning new Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, the last week in October. I was able to put a deal together with Ocean Racing Technology after the GP2 Series test in Jerez a couple of weeks prior. They were a team that showed impressive pace in their first year of GP2 competition and signs were looking very positive for their 2010 campaign. My teammate for the event was ironically enough someone that I had raced with all year – Fabio Leimer , the International Formula Master champion. Because this facility was not only brand new, but finished under extreme deadlines it was planned that GP2 Asia would hold an official test the week prior to the Formula One season-finale as a way to test the facilities for failures – most specifically the track lighting system. As everyone would soon discover, there was a very low level of grip in those early days of testing due to the new surface and being located in the middle of the Arabian Desert. Now that you have the basics, let’s get to the good stuff, shall we…?
Day one, open practice morning session. The light at the end of the pit lane transitions from a burning red to a bright green. At this point, it is quite normal for the majority of the field to roll out on track to begin their installation laps, and while this was the case, the cars promptly found their ways back to the garages, where they remained for the next two hours. Up and down the pit lane, every team and driver were waiting for someone else to make “the move” and venture out to the circuit with their new set of slick tires to “clean” the track and start laying down some rubber. It got to the point of comedy, when other team owners were going from team to team suggesting that their rivals should go out on track first.
With about 45 minutes left in the session the stalemate ended and cars started to roll out, myself included. I will admit that the first five-six laps were quite difficult, as there was literally a rooster tail of dust coming out from the cars on the start/finish straight. When the session ended, I saw myself fifth on the time sheets with a three tenth margin to the leader. I was quite happy about this, but knew that the others would catch up soon and we would need to be on top of our game as the track conditions would be changing.
The afternoon session proved to be less successful (at least to the public eye), as Fabio and I found ourselves 15th and 16th. However, everyone on the team was able to look back on the day with success as we knew the pace was there, but realized our timing was slightly off when we decided to put on the new tires. As a result, we fell about 14 slots on the order in the last 25 minutes of running. On a side note, I have to say that my first experience of running at night and being able to drive under the lights was surreal, and I hope to have the opportunity to race in conditions such as these very soon.
Day two started much more productively, as the track was now clean and there was at least some rubber on the tarmac to work with. Unfortunately, we were not able to maximize this, as I struggled massively with traction problems exiting the slow speed corners. This problem remained with us throughout the entire day, and when testing concluded, I was 13th in the morning and an extremely disappointing 18th in the afternoon. What was even harder to swallow about these results was the fact that while my teammate was 11th in the morning, he was able to get his car sorted out and drive to fourth overall in the afternoon. To put it lightly, we had a lot of work to do in order to come out of this deficit on top.
This particular race weekend was much like any other that I have been a part of, in the sense that the main objective of the entire personnel was to go put up a fantastic performance in qualifying and follow that up with a result in both races. One thing that was entirely different however, was the sheer energy that was present at the Yas Marina Circuit. It was truly a fantastic thing to be able to compete on such an awe-inspiring stage for the series opening weekend, an event that has arguably been one of the most highly anticipated in Formula One history.
This brings me to our first and final official 30 minute practice of the weekend, and it was like going back to square one in testing. All of the rubber that we had laid down the week before had been covered in either sand or fluids from the track vehicles, and on top of this all of the curbs had a nice fresh layer of paint in order to aesthetically please the television viewers. While it may have looked all nice and shiny it was certainly a challenge for the majority of the field, as we were lapping around a second and a half slower than the previous week. At the end, practice was nothing spectacular for the team, as Fabio and I were ninth and tenth. The balance of our cars were quite similar which was encouraging, as the problems we had in testing seemed to have gone away, or so we thought.
As qualifying came around a couple of hours later, we went into the session confident believing that we had finally gotten a grip on this track and that it would pay off with a respectable grid spot. On the first set of tires, I found myself eighth and immediately felt that the car was far too soft for the amount of rubber that Formula One had laid down during their first official practice of the weekend. I say this because as soon as I turned into the corner the stability of the car went away and this continued all the way to exit where snap oversteer came into effect whenever I tried to go to power. This is the same problem that was reoccurring all throughout testing. When we pitted for the second set of tires, I had them make a fairly extreme set-up change to the rear of the car, one that we were not expecting to do all weekend. The car immediately felt better on the entry to mid corner, but the snap oversteer was back. I did everything that I could to put a lap in and while my lap times dramatically improved, so did everyone else’s and I ended an extremely disappointing 13th.
This was by far the worst qualifying grid spot that I have ever had in my racing career, and I was extremely frustrated with why we could not figure out how to get rid of a problem that had hounded us for three days, while my teammate seemed to be able to get everything sorted out much quicker and more efficiently. Nonetheless, we still had a race to run and we came to win and were not going to give up on this until Sunday evening when the last checkered flag had flown.
We knew from testing, that our car on heavy fuel was extremely quick and we were going to use that to our advantage with a very brave pit stop strategy. I have to admit that being able to strategize a race around a pit stop makes the driver’s job much easier out on track in order to move up the grid, versus having to pass all the cars by yourself in 45 minutes or less. Going into the race, I knew that cars would be stalling at the start and I was solely focusing on finding the hole through the grid and into the first corner. Believe it or not, there was not one incident in turn one, however three cars did stall on the grid including my teammate who had a second row starting position. I pushed like mad on cold tires, working to overtake as many cars as possible, and I was thrilled when I came around the final corner and saw on my pit board that I was beginning lap two in seventh position. What was very ironic, was the fact that I found myself directly on the gearbox of Josef Kral (SuperNova), someone that I had raced against the entire year in IFM. It almost gave me a sense of comfort to push on because I knew what to expect from him.
As the laps ticked off, Josef and I were two of the quickest cars on track and we pushed forward to catch the lead group that was fighting tooth and nail for every spot. We eventually caught them on lap six and I took a ‘watching’ position for two laps. The team and I immediately realized that the cars in front were holding me up and we needed to put our strategy into effect when the pit stop window opened and come in very early. Unfortunately Kral was thinking the same. We pitted on lap seven and only changed the rear tires, as the front of the car had been brilliant all throughout testing and qualifying so we were banking on the fact that it would remain the same through the entire 75 minute race. The pit stop went fantastic and was blindingly quick as we only changed the rear tires and I leap-frogged ahead of Kral. What I was not expecting was how difficult the car was to drive with hot front tires and stone cold rear tires, as there are no tire warmers in GP2.
I did everything I could, but eventually had to concede to a quicker Kral who had already had a lap to get temperatures into his tires. I found myself back in a theoretical seventh position, but kept my head down and kept pushing and was rewarded a few laps later. When the rear tires finally came to temperature, the pace that we had was fantastic. Not only was I able to catch and overtake Kral, but the Arden car of Rodolfo Gonzalez as well, which put me into a solid fifth position. That’s when the safety car came out, and I knew that I had a shot at a podium. As the field bunched together, I was directly behind Sam Bird and James Jakes. I knew up to this point that I had quicker pace than the both of them.
Once we got the green flag I had many looks at getting around Bird, but he put in some pretty impressive pieces of defensive driving and I could not find the necessary hole. For the next 16 to 17 laps I did my best to apply the pressure to Bird, but at the same time I had to focus on Kral behind me, all the while the fuel was coming off of my car and the exit oversteer was gradually working its way back into the balance of the car.
Because I had put quite a bit of mileage onto the rear tires, I was starting to get quite concerned about graining, so I was having to be very focused on not overdriving the car and not going on power to aggressively. It even got to the point where I would need to almost back off for half of lap to allow the tires to regain some grip before pushing on the next lap. With about eight laps to go, another safety car came out and I was relieved as it would give my tires a chance to cool down and recover. At the restart, I had another look at Bird and was pushing him very hard for the next two laps. He continued to lock-up tires into the braking zones, and I knew that it would be a matter of time before he made a mistake. However, our battle came to a premature end when he retired from the race with rear brake failure. This allowed me to slot into fourth, and for the final five laps I put my head down and pushed. I was able to reduce the gap to Jakes from 3.2 seconds to 0.9 at the line, and I believe that if we had another few laps I could have snuck onto the podium. Regardless, this was a good result for us, especially after the problems that we had encountered up until this point. The only negative to the events of the day was the fact that we still had not cured our traction problems on the exit of the slow speed corners, as the problem was masked by the heavy fuel.
 | Rossi not only showed the ability to run near the front in GP2 Asia and GP2 testing, but learned a great deal about tires ahead of his Formula One test
(Photo: GP2 Series Media Services) |
Race two didn’t start nearly as exciting as race one, but I was still able to move into third from a fifth place starting spot. I spent the majority of the race by myself, as I did not have the pace of the lead duo, but I had enough to keep a fairly large gap back to the two iSport cars of Oliver Turvey and Davide Valsecchi. That is until the safety car. The day before, I would have been relieved to see a full-course yellow, as it gave my tires a chance to recover, but for this race the tables were completely turned. I was struggling with quite a bit of understeer during the race, as we again failed to account for the large amount of rubber that was laid down during Formula One qualifying. So when the tires lost temperature, the understeer just got predominantly worse, and when the green flag flew, I had nothing for the two iSport cars and had to be content with settling down in fifth.
Obviously, there were highs and lows of my GP2 Asia debut, however with the help of a dedicated team we never lost sight of the goal and were able to come out of the weekend with a fourth and fifth while fighting for the podium in both of the races. This was a big confidence boost for me, as it showed that if I could have been able to qualify towards the front, then I would have seriously challenged for the win. I have not yet signed for the remainder of the GP2 Asia series, although I am hoping for a decision within the coming weeks.
Shortly after the race weekend, as I was back behind the wheel of a GP2 Series car, taking part in the final official winter series test of 2009 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Southern France.
I went into this test specifically looking to fully prepare myself for what will be the test of my career upto this point. As many of you know, I have a test with the BMW-Sauber Formula One squad on December 1-3 as the prize for winning the 2008 Formula BMW World Finals. The test will take place at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain, and is going to be a very intense three days, as it is my debut onto the Formula One stage, as well as the sad farewell to BMW from the sport. This test is actually the main reason that I began GP2 testing, to prepare in a big, very quick car on the Jerez circuit. Well to everyone’s pleasant surprise, my first outing in a GP2 car was very successful, and hence my GP2 career has now begun.
For the GP2 Series test at Paul Ricard my main goal besides being at the top of the time sheets, of course, was to fully learn how to get the maximum out of the very sensitive and complex Bridgestone tires. As I have mentioned before, the tire that the GP2 series’ uses was designed to be very similar to that of its older brother in Formula One. This was done in an attempt to prepare young drivers for the very difficult act of putting together the perfect lap, as the tires are only at their peak for one or two laps at the most. On top of this, GP2 drivers must learn to manage the gap to other cars while out on track, because as you can imagine with 26 different drivers all pushing for pole position, there is going to be times of yellow/red flags, as well as coming up on traffic. The traffic is the same as any other series, but it is magnified by the fact that with this particular tire drivers must do one lap pushing, the next lap extremely slow in an attempt to cool the tires down, and so on and so forth. Put all of this on a 2.8-km circuit such as Paul Ricard and you are going to need some luck to put in the perfect lap.
While I was able to learn how to feel the maximum of the tire and string together all of the sectors to be a quick lap, I was never able to show my true pace to the public. Whenever I put in a purple or green sector, I would come up on a slower car, yellow flag, or end up making a slight mistake that cost me two or three tenths. This may not seem like a big deal, but when the overall results see the top-20 drivers within six tenths, every little bit counts. So with that said, I was not able to get the results that I was looking for, but I still view the test as a success, as I learned some crucial information that I will be able to take with me to my test in December.
I know that the pace is there and I am looking forward to giving BMW-Sauber F1 one final result that they can be proud of in Jerez. Like many young drivers that will be there, it is going to be our first opportunity to show the Formula One community what we can do, and I am going into the test looking to make an impression. This is something that so many drivers dream of doing, and the fact that I actually have the opportunity to participate in a proper Formula One test is a blessing from God and I will not take anything for granted.
My next blog will cover my first taste in Formula One, don’t miss it!
 | Alexander Rossi captured the 2009 rookie title with his third series win
(Photo: International Formula Master) |
European Season Ends with Title and GP2 Adventure Begins
November 4, 2009
As I said in my last blog, I came into the season-finale really pushing for a pole and feature race victory - something that had eluded us all year. While I wasn't able to do just that at the famed Imola race track in Italy, I was able to grab a win, as well as the Rookie of the Year title.
The weekend got off to a little bit of a rough start, as I was only able to put in the sixth quickest lap in first practice, and I knew that second practice was going to be quite difficult for me as well, as I did not have any new tires to carry over from previous events. This meant that I could not get a ‘read’ on my in a new tire situation, but by the end of practice I was quite happy with the balance of the car and I had positive feelings going into qualifying.
We were the first to go on track Saturday morning and I immediately realized that we did not have the pace to put the car at the head of the field. I did everything I could to put a lap in, but had to accept a sixth place grid spot - or so I thought. As I was debriefing with my engineer, the race stewards informed me that I was being investigated for "not respecting the track boundaries." In other words, I went four wheels over the white line on the exit of Acqua Minerale and they felt that I had gained an unfair advantage. What was very strange and frustrating about this was not the fact that I went over the white line, because I did, but the point that just about every car in the field had used the white line in qualifying but there were only two cars that were being investigated for this infraction (myself and Josef Kral). All throughout practice the previous day everyone was using this part of the race track, as it was the quickest way around and because this was qualifying I was pushing for every last tenth, which in the end definitely cost me far much more than I could have ever gained by using the extra road. The decision was soon made to not only take away my quickest lap, but that I would not even receive credit for me second legitimate lap. Instead, the race stewards felt that the necessary penalty was to give me a five grid place penalty, which put me back in 11th place. I was quite unhappy with this as you can imagine and was very determined to make a point later in the afternoon for race one of the weekend.
I knew that the opening laps would be my best opportunity to move up the order substantially, as once the tires come up to temperature and the other drivers settle into a rhythm it is very difficult to get by due to the aerodynamics and the utilization of ground effect on the Formula Master car. Basically, when you get within six tenths of the car in front, it becomes a stalemate between the cars due to the fact that if you get any closer you will lose the majority of your grip because of the dirty air. I got a fantastic jump off the line and immediately started going to work. I chose the outside, inside, middle, and even dirt on some occasions, to get around several cars, and by three laps into the race I was into fifth and right on the gearbox of two JD Motorsport cars. Unfortunately, by this time tire temperatures were very equal throughout the field and I could not find a way around the two cars in front unless I could force them into a mistake. Despite my best efforts, in the end I had to be content with having moved to a fifth place finish from 11th on the grid. On a side note, my main rival in the Rookie Championship made car contact at the start and was not able to finish, meaning that my chances of the title were now very much within my reach.
 | Rossi ended his inaugural season with a visit to the top step of the podium in Italy
(Photo: International Formula Master) |
With the inverted grid, I started Sunday's race in fourth and I was fully focused on finishing out the season with a victory. By the exit of turn three, I was in second place, directly behind my teammate Erik Janis. In the opening couple of laps I was really struggling for grip, as my engineer and I had decided to take off overall downforce to improve straight-line speed, with the expectation that I was going to be running up front. This plan was working very well in our favor, as I had much more pace then my teammate, but still could not find a way around. Every driver will tell you this is a very difficult situation to be in. I was clear in my pursuit of the win, yet when racing your teammate the rules of engagement are a bit trickier and at the same time I had Kral literally crawling all over me, to the point that I think he may have been shifting for me. Fortunately, I had one major advantage, and that was the fact that I was much quicker than everyone through the first sector. My opportunity finally came on lap 12, when I got a fantastic run out of the hallowed turn three and I knew that I had to take it. I went to the inside going into Villenueve and my teammate drove me all the way down to the inside, but I had enough momentum to start pushing him back out to open up the radius. I was able to complete the pass and immediately opened up a two second lead on the rest of the field. I had three laps to go and all my mental energy went into making no mistakes and bringing the car home for our third victory of the year and the Rookie Title.
While I was not able to accomplish all of the goals I set out for myself this weekend, or this year for that matter, I feel that 2009 was definitely a successful season for me. What I learned and am continuing to learn is preparing me for what is to come. I do not know the future, but I have the upmost faith that if my pursuit of a career Formula One is meant to happen, then everything will fall into place. So until then...I will keep working each day preparing myself for the opportunities that present themselves so that I will be able to put in my best performance each and every time I get the chance to drive a race car.
Everyone involved in motorsport knows that the off-season is just as an important time as the season itself, as during the winter months teams have the opportunity to evaluate drivers, while drivers can make the all crucial decisions regarding what series and with what team they will place their bid for the 2010 championship. Since my 2009 campaign ended in Imola, I have begun my winter testing for next year, starting with the first official test of GP2 Series in Jerez, Spain. The ultimate feeder series of Formula One, GP2 is one, if not the most competitive junior formula series in the world. I was set to commence my 'GP2 career' with Piquet GP, and I have to say that I was thrilled to be running with one of the top teams in the series.
As one can imagine I had many different emotions pulsing through me when I arrived to the track for day one of testing and I realized that I was entering a series where the best junior teams and drivers in the world come to compete – all with one and only one thing in sight...to win. When the green light came on at 9 a.m. sharp I immediately rolled out of pit lane smiling about the fact that I had a 650bhp V8 Renault engine at my beckoned call. The first two laps that I did were merely installation laps to insure that everything was working properly and that I was totally comfortable in the car. After this was finished, we bolted on a brand new set of Bridgestone Potenza slicks and I rolled out of pit lane once more; this time with much more confidence. Lap after lap, corner after corner, I was continually impressed with the levels of downforce and grip through high speed corners, as well as the sheer stopping power of the carbon brakes. I did six timed laps, and by the end I had already put myself up to P5. I knew that this would not last, however, as there was still a number of cars that had not yet put in a timed lap. When the morning session of day one came to a close, I found myself P15 with a two second gap to the leader. This was obviously not a satisfying result, but at the same time I knew where to find the time and was prepared to maximize the new rubber later on in the afternoon when the track temperatures backed off. Because the day was to finish at 5 p.m., "happy hour" came at 4 p.m. and nearly every car rolled out onto the track with brand new tires. I was able to put up the 12th quickest time, and while this was not too impressive, we were able to drop the gap to the leader by a full second, meaning that after my first day in the car and at that track, I was only one second off of the pace of drivers who had been competing in the series for two or more years.
 | Rossi got his first chance to sample at GP2 Series car in official testing at Jerez in Spain
(Photo: GP2 Series Media Services) |
With the Jerez test taking place over three days, the second test day for me was planned as a day to observe and rest in order to prepare for my second day in the car, this time with DAMS. This ended up being a very difficult day for me, as the worst thing that a racing driver can go through is being at the race track, but not being able to drive. This feeling was exaggerated by the fact that the quickest time of the day was over three seconds faster than on day one due to cooler weather and a more rubbered in track. I met with DAMS late into the night getting properly fitted in the car and going over the itinerary and I was extremely confident that we would be very competitive. Little did we know that when we awoke the next morning, there would be heavy rain and a soaked Jerez circuit. I don't know how many of you know about the Jerez layout, but it is a very quick track with some flat out, blind, long duration corners that require an extreme amount of confidence in your machine. With that said, I will admit that I was a little concerned about driving on Jerez in only my second day in a GP2 car in full wet conditions. To my surprise, I led the entire morning session in the wet and I felt totally comfortable pushing the car in the high speed corners and under braking. The only thing that was a touch tricky was creating traction control with my right foot, however I quickly got used to it and was able to rely on the Bridgestone rain tires to support the speed throughout the corner. With about 30 minutes to go, the track dried out enough to put slicks back on and I was ready to defend my spot at the top of the time charts, only to be stopped by a hydraulic failure that kept me out for the remainder of the session. This was extremely disappointing, as at the time I was P1 and by the checkered flag, I ended P23. The sole consolation was the fact that we knew we had awesome pace and would be ready to fight for the top spot in the afternoon with two sets of sticker tires at our disposal.
One thing that I should mention about the GP2 tire is that it is extremely difficult to get the maximum out of the new tire, as the tires best performance is only available for one lap, after that the performance falls off so dramatically that you are never able to better your lap time.
The afternoon session arrived and we were ready to pick up from the morning’s work. Right before we were to put on the first set of new tires we had a master cylinder failure that caused the brake bias to shift drastically to the rear without any type of warning. This same failure had caught out Max Chilton (Barwa Addax) and Eduardo Piscopo (Trident Racing) the day before and caused them to both suffer heavy impacts. Fortunately, we caught the problem in time, but it meant that we would not have much time left in the session to put our lap in. Once the braking system was put back together, we rolled out on track and immediately moved into P6 four or five tenths off the leader. The confidence was never higher with the team, as the top spot was within our reach and as I rolled out of pit lane on the second set of new tires, I was prepared to but myself, DAMS, and the red/white/blue back at the top of international motor racing. My out lap on the tires was quite quick, two tenths quicker that my best on the previous set. As I started "the lap" I began pushing like hell and in the first sector, I was on pace, second sector, up by one tenth, third sector, traffic. Game over. The miracle lap of the tire was gone and I could not better my time. When the checkered flag flew for the final time of the Jerez test, I was P9. Sure, this was a solid result, as I was only six-tenths from the point, but at the same time very disappointing as the team and I both new that we had the potential for so much more.
Currently plans for next season couldn't be more unclear. We are working very hard day in and day out to find the necessary budgets in order to put a deal together by no later than mid-November and as of now, everything is looking positive. There are many opportunities out there; it is just all about finding the right one in order to continue my European path. So for now, all I can say is stay tuned for the next "episode"
Editor's Note: Alexander Rossi signed a contract with full sponsor support after the blog was written, enabling the young American to compete in GP2 Asia Series season-opener with Ocean Racing Technology. Rossi impressed everyone by finishing fourth and fifth in his series debut at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
 | Alexander Rossi now counts himself among those who believe the Circuit Spa-Francorchamps is the best in the world
(Photo: Team Rossi) |
The European Adventure Continues
September 15, 2009
Hello eformulacarnews.com. Before I get into the stories of my European experiences, I want to apologize to everyone for the delay in this posting. Since the conclusion of the Oschersleben event, I have been working very hard to find a European physical trainer specializing in training formula car pilots who can adequately prepare me for my Formula One test in December. In the past week, I have been training with Beppe Sebastiani and temporarily relocated myself to Marina di Pietrasanta, a small coastal town about two hours south of Milan, Italy. My training regimen consists of four to six hours a day, six days a week which will put me on the path to reach the level of fitness that I want to acquire. This Wednesday, I will be leaving here to head for Imola to compete in the season-finale of the International Formula Master Series but hope to be back by month’s end to pick up my training once again.
The two events that you are about to read (Spa and Oschersbleben) were very different, but at the same time, extremely similar in the sense that the goal remains the same – to win and be the quickest car on track each and every time the lights go out.
“The cars can’t really make it up this, can they?” These words were the first of what would end up being a long fascination with the reality of what Eau Rouge was and what the entire Spa-Francorchamps circuit represented. I got the opportunity to drive on the circuit for the first time about two months ago, however since it was only a one day test, I did not have the time necessary to walk it and truly take everything in. I have to admit that while driving Spa is quite amazing, walking around the 4.352-mile track is something special in its own right. At the entry and exit of every corner you cannot help being taken aback by not only the sheer beauty of its surroundings, but by the amount of history and stories that could be told regarding every piece of the circuit. I know many say that the circuit is the best in the world and I would have difficulties agreeing with them if I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to walk and more importantly drive the track. All good drivers will tell you that the best feeling you can get from being in a race car comes from pushing yourself and your machine to the maximum with the confidence that it will stick and go wherever you want it to go. Now there is a certain merit to this, but what I realized on my out lap was that this circuit was different than anything I had ever been on – not because of the elevation, grip, or smooth pavement; but because there were seemingly endless opportunities to push yourself and your car that much further to chase the all elusive ‘perfect lap’.
Qualifying came very early on Saturday morning, and unfortunately for me and the team it did not pass by without some drama. Like I have mentioned previously, when we run support to Formula One we do not get priority time slots and Saturday was no exception. We were the first cars on track, plus it was an extremely cool morning in the Arden Forest, which made the amount of grip very much in question. Admittedly before the session I was fairly nervous, as I knew that pole position was ours to lose given our performance in practice, and I probably was a little out of touch with reality when I rolled out of pit lane for the first time. What I mean by this is that while everyone was weaving back and forth on the straight exiting Eau Rouge to try and get some base temperature into the tire, I was more focused on getting to the head of the field as to not deal with any traffic on my flying laps.
I’m sure that you can guess what happened next. When I turned into the next corner there was less than zero grip, and I had a very slow somewhat transparent spin that caused me to get stuck in the grass. This was probably not the best thing to do on the out lap of what was already a shortened qualifying session. It caught my teammate by so much surprise that he told me afterward that he didn’t know what was going on and if he should ‘park his car’ as well. Anyways, thanks to the help of a few very motivated corner workers I was able to continue on my way. The next few laps were pretty poor in the sense that I was ninth or tenth in the order, and I was not showing much possibility of improvement. So the next time by the start-finish line, I took a very slow lap in order to get my mind wrapped around the task ahead. Meanwhile Fabio Leimer was ripping off laps around a second quicker than anyone had gone in practice.
My engineer and I had a short discussion over the radio, which I later found out was to stop him from pulling his hair out. Nonetheless, I had around 18 minutes to find about two seconds, and my confidence got higher and higher as I continued around the track. This is when I realized the true brilliance of the track…just when you think that you have reached a limit in a lap, the bar just gets set higher the next time around. Not by the competitors and not by the team, but by the track itself. Over the next three laps I was able to put the car to head of the field by about eight tenths of a second, at which time I pulled into my pit box for the second set of tires. Things were looking up, but I have learned by past experience, especially past experience in Europe, that you never have the top slot in the bag until the final car crosses the stripe. This was certainly the case, as Leimer mounted another charge and was running times very close to my provisional pole time. In the end I did everything I could, but Fabio got the best of me and put his car on pole by a marginal six 1/100ths of a second, and I had to be happy with my best qualifying performance of the year in second.
 | Rossi rebounded from a disappointing first race at Spa to win race two in front of the Formula One community
(Photo: Team Rossi) |
Obviously I was in a very good position for race one, as Spa is certainly a track where passing opportunities are large. One light, two lights, three, four…out of the corner of my eye I notice a yellow car to my right blowing by me as if I was standing still. Wait, I was still standing still. What happened? Did I miss the lights? Was my reaction time that slow? And then I realize that the Iris Project car had severely jumped the start. By the time I got my attention refocused, the lights were out and my start was less than perfect, and my chance of getting by Leimer on the outside run to turn one was slim. Not a problem I told myself as I slotted into second, it’s a long race and things will come to me. I check my right mirror as I go to the brakes and all is clear, life’s good. Just as I was apexing turn one behind Leimer, Josef Kral comes from seventh on the grid and out brakes himself, causing the usual turn one mayhem to occur seconds later. He comes in contact with the right side of my car and cars start splitting left, right, in the grass, on the access road. I immediately find myself in seventh exiting turn one. This was certainly not what I was expecting, and I knew that it would be a difficult race when I went through Eau Rouge for the first time and the rear of the car snapped hard. Over the entire race I did everything I could to make up time with a damaged diffuser and skewed ground effect pieces. In the end, I was able to salvage a fifth place finish, immediately behind my teammate. I have to say that it was one of the more disappointing races of my career, as this is one of the few opportunities that I have to compete in front of the Formula One world, at Spa-Francorchamps, no less.
Let’s just say that for race two on Sunday, I was determined to salvage at least something out of the weekend. I lined up fourth on the gird due to the inverted top-eight from race one and got a great start, which allowed me to move into P2 by the exit of turn one. Then the safety car came out and the work began. Keeping the tires and brakes warm on such a long lap was not only the most important part of the race, but by far the most physical. At the restart, I just focused on staying clear of the cars behind, and once that task was completed I focused on the race lead. Exiting turn one, accelerating up to sixth gear, spy the turn in for phase one, stay flat, touch the apex curb, start looking up the hill for phase two, feel the compression, keep it flat, let the car do what it wants, crest the hill for phase three, say ‘wow’, and pass Pal Varhaug for the lead. This was my thought process for the day’s first full run through Eau Rouge. Once I got into the lead I was able to establish a fairly large gap and bring the car home in the lead ahead of Leimer and my teammate Janis. I have to say that even though I was able to get at least one of our ‘Spa wins’ it was little consolation for the events that took place just a day previous. However, with that said I was quite happy about the fact that ISR was able to get both cars on the podium, as it shows the hard work and dedication of a team that has been plagued with unfortunate circumstances.
Racing at another circuit just one week after running Spa’s amazing circuit, it’s a tall order not to be disappointed, or to find some difficulty in switching car and driver setup so quickly. Well to put it simply, Motopark Arena Oschersleben, did not even come close. When I arrived at the track for the first time, I realized that passing was going to be next to impossible, and that qualifying was more or less the race. Before I get into the events of the weekend, I am going to take a step back to the Hungarian Grand Prix and remind you of a problem that we had in race one of that doubleheader.
I was running third with a strong possibility to at least move into second when my left rear dampener failed causing the car to have severe bump steer on the turn in of all the right hand corners. Later we found out that this was because the suspension system that we had on the rear of the car was not adequate for the large and frequent use of the apex curbs. So immediately after Spa, the team returned to Prague to completely change the rear of the car, as Oschersleben is a circuit where using the curbs is critical, maybe even more so than the likes of Monza or Pau. With that said, I knew that we could put a good lap together if the car was working over the curbs.
The team did a fantastic job, and after first practice we were quickest through sector two (part of the circuit with the most curbs) and second overall, once again only five 1/100ths off. We did this with a heavy fuel load and used tires, so our confidence was very high going into second practice and the most important session of the weekend – qualifying.
As we began to grid up in pit lane to start the session, it looked as if rain would be a possibility, so it would be critical to get at least one ‘banker’ lap on the board in case of a sudden downpour. Qualifying started well and the balance of the car felt good so it was just a matter of putting it all together. Fortunately, as the session went on the threat of rain started to reduce, which greatly took the pressure off not only myself but the team as well. We came in for the second set of tires and were sitting second, five tenths adrift of Leimer. I made a small change to the front of the car and resumed my bid for the most important pole of the year. I dropped back to fifth with about seven minutes to go and I realized that I would need something special to find the time necessary. Each lap was quicker and quicker, as I ended up third, two tenths off. While this is not a bad result, I knew that things would be difficult in the first race.
Looking back at the telemetry we came to the disappointing conclusion that on my final and quickest lap we were out of fuel in three places on the track, mainly through the long duration corners. Would it have been good enough for pole? Possibly. Would it have been better to run a heavier fuel load at the beginning? Absolutely. Unfortunately, hindsight is always perfectly clear, but we were third and would have to make the best of it.
I got a fantastic jump off the line when the lights went out and immediately overtook Sergey Afanasiev for second and actually had a decent run on Leimer for the lead. I should also add that turn one is a first/second gear left hand corner coming off of quite a long straight, followed immediately by a 200 degree right sweeper. As we got to the braking zone for turn one I made a lunge at Leimer and was alongside when Afnasiev counterattacked up the inside of me. We were three wide into a very narrow turn one. Surprisingly enough we made it through with no car contact, however my run out of turn one was pathetic and I got jumped by my teammate as well. I dropped back to fourth and this is how it remained for the entire race. The top four cars were running about seven tenths quicker than the rest of the field, and I was quicker than the cars in front, but in the end I could do nothing to improve my position.
 | The talented American was unable to show his true speed on the extremely difficult to pass Oschersleben track in Germany
(Photo: Team Rossi) |
When Sunday rolled around, I was once again disappointed that we were not able to get our first Saturday victory worth the full 10 points, but I had to get over it, as I had another race to run. I started fifth on the grid and knew that the start was my one chance to overtake as many cars as possible. Unfortunately, I got the same start as the cars in front of me, and I really felt the bottleneck effect from starting on the third row of the grid. I did my best to find a way around the cars in front and was side-by-side with Afanasiev in turn two on the outside line. As is the case in European racing, when we got to the exit of the corner, I found myself out of road and in the grass. Immediately thereafter, I lost two spots and dropped back to seventh. I cannot be upset about what Afanasiev did, as I would have done the same to him. Racing is racing and I probably would have had the chance to come back at him had the circuit been one where overtaking was a legitimate possibility. Just so that you have a frame of reference, in the two races (a total of 49 laps) there were all of two passes throughout the entire field, not counting starts.
This was obviously not a weekend to remember with fondness, but the important thing is that the team and I once again showed that the pace was there, as we were again quicker than all of the cars ahead in the finishing order. However, the reality is that we are now sitting fifth in the overall points with a 14-point gap to second, and four points off of the lead in the Rookie Championship. I am going into Imola totally focused on getting the pole, and the race one win that we have deserved all year. If we can achieve this, then I will be quite happy. Since I cannot control the results of other drivers, I just have to focus on my tasks at hand and the points will sort themselves out. The plus side to all of this is that it looks like rain is going to play a big role in the weekend and we all know that when the rain falls, the ball game is completely changed and the playing fields are leveled. We will see what happens with the weather forecast, but one thing is for certain, it is going to be a fight in Italy and I will be pushing very hard to put myself, ISR, and America at the top.
Onward…Alexander
 | Alexander Rossi experienced the highs and lows of racing at the famed Brands Hatch Circuit
(Photo: Team Rossi) |
The Highs and Lows of Racing
July 30, 2009
The past few weeks since Brno have been quite difficult for many reasons, but at the same time there have been glimpses of great things to come, specifically at Brands Hatch and the Hungaroring.
Coming off my first International Formula Master series win in Brno, the team (ISR) and I were full of confidence heading into our race weekend in Southern London. I had heard nothing but positives about the Grand Prix version of the Brands Hatch circuit and was very excited to get on track and continue the momentum that we started in the Czech Republic.
Full Story Here
 | American Alexander Rossi is racing and winning in the International Formula Master series in 2009 in pursuit of his dream of F1
(Photo: Rossi Motorsports) |
Early Success in Europe
July 3, 2009
Before I begin, let me say I'm greatly looking forward to sharing with you the readers of eFormulaCarNews.com my career as an American driver competing in Europe.
As I begin this blog, I am going to take a step back in time to the 2008 Formula One finale in Sao Paulo, Brazil in order to get you caught up to date of where I am now.
Full Story Here |
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