Formula 2 Test – Hyman enjoys productive F2 test Thursday

South African Formula 2 hope Raoul Hyman enjoyed a solid second day of testing for Campos Racing at Bahrain’s Sakhir Grand Prix Circuit Thursday as he came to grips with the immense power, grip and downforce of his Dallara-Renault racer.

“It was a very full day with lots of running on both the prime and the option tyre,” Raoul explained. “This morning I put in 41 laps – more than anyone else as we evaluated a different brake material, damper settings, ride heights, and differential settings, all of which is very good for me, because every other driver here has had at least six days in the car before this test.

All the laps are helping me better understand the car and how it reacts to changes; about tyre degradation and how the performance drops off by as much as 0.8seconds after the first new tyre.”The tail also becomes really happy after a few laps, so one must modulate the throttle accordingly.

“This afternoon we lost an hour changing gear ratio for our race simulation, but we ran a little too much wing and the tyre drop-off was dramatic after twelve laps, so we had to abort the long run. “After that we did a back-to-back brake configuration comparison that worked out well.

“I was 13th on the time sheets this afternoon, but it’s been a steep learning curve. “Outright single-lap pace is not important for a race weekend – it’s all about finding a good race set-up and optimum tyre life, so the car must be driven very differently on a long run and I had to adapt my technique to manage a half-race distance.

“Tomorrow we plan a full race weekend simulation – a short run in the morning and a long one in the afternoon and my focus is now to learn how to drive the car in the long runs. “It sounds counter intuitive, but its all about learning how to drive the car slowly, to make the tyres last, which does not mean driving slowly, but rather using a technique that puts less energy into the tyres to prolong their performance.”

“There’s been so much to take in, but I’m gaining invaluable experience every lap and I’ve really learned a great deal,” Raoul concluded. “To put it all in perspective, these cars are faster than F1 was a few years ago – I did 70 laps today and it was most productive. “I am so grateful to Campos for this opportunity – I can’t thank the team enough.”