Korea has “a bit of everything” – Kubica

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Robert Kubica has been scouring Youtube for videos of the new Korean International Circuit but admits there’s nothing like driving a track for the first time to learn a circuit properly:

I have seen the videos on You Tube and collected as much information as I can with the team. I will do some virtual laps to learn the layout before we walk the track with the engineers on Thursday. To be honest, though, the first installation lap gives you more information than most of the preparation you can do.
Robert Kubica

The level of grip at the track is a talking point ahead of the race due to the late laying of the tarmac. Kubica says it makes this weekend’s race difficult to predict:

The track looks pretty interesting. There’s a bit of everything: long corners, high-speed and low-speed sections, and the final sector seems quite challenging.

A lot will depend on the level of grip that the asphalt has. If the grip is high, then some of the corners will be easy flat; if it’s low, they will be a big challenge. We have seen already this year, at races like Hockenheim and Canada, that the grip varies a lot with new tarmac. And that makes it very difficult to predict what will happen this weekend in Korea, and how competitive we can be relative to our rivals.
Robert Kubica

He added he’d been encouraged by his car’s pace in Suzuka despite his early retirement from second place.:

I was positively surprised with our level of performance. I was hoping that we would be more competitive than in Singapore, because Suzuka is a circuit more like Spa, but I didn’t expect to be as quick as we were. It was a big effort in qualifying, and I was surprised to be so far up the grid, but ultimately it didn’t pay off. But that’s how racing is: problems can happen, and I haven’t thought about it since.
Robert Kubica

Chief race engineer Alan Permane said the cars will run a similar set-up to that used at Suzuka this weekend:

The downforce needed will be on the high side and we plan to run with the same wing package we used in Suzuka.

There are a couple of high-speed corners, such as turns seven and eight, which remind me of turns five and six at Sepang. They involve a quick change of direction and we expect turn seven will be flat, while turn eight will be almost flat.

It will also be important to maximise the F-duct for the long straights because there are a couple of good overtaking opportunities into turns one and three.
Alan Permane

He identified the final sequence of slow corners as being particularly important for a quick lap time:

For these corners you need a nimble car with a good turn-in and good traction. It’s important the car works well in these sorts of corner because it’s where the most significant lap time gains can be found.
Alan Permane

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    16 comments on “Korea has “a bit of everything” – Kubica”

    1. In a way, this is pretty obvious talking. On the other hand, I admit i like Kubica for his enjoying to go to street-tracks with barriers close to it for the extra thrill.

      I certainly hope it will be as low grip and developing as unpredictably as possible all weekend to have the teams / drivers struggle with strategy and making it work all the time.

      1. It could be that “low grip” could be the solution for F1´s overtaking problems in general.
        Maybe the new Pirelli tyres could be developed on purpose with not too much grip, and we could have a great 2011 season.
        Lack of grip affects (or favors) all the teams equally.
        These are very late night musings

    2. Thats great. Thats way I like F1 instead of indycar where u just go round your oval…

      1. You don’t know much about IndyCar, do you? A n00b you are, kid.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_IndyCar_Series_season

        1. Man, I love those speedways ;)

      2. I think you mean Nascar, and not indycar…

    3. A bit of everything is how Tilke seem to like his circuits. I wish he’d design a balanced circuit instead, one where equal time can be gained through speed, downforce and traction.

      1. It’s almost in my time zone… doesn’t get any better than that for me.

        But I’m with you on the balance thing. It seems to be a bit of this track and that track woven together to produce a bit of a gray track.

        2013 will be the real judge of the Tike tracks when ground force comes into play.

        Makes me wonder all the same if the rules are changing to adjust to the track locals?

    4. ” There’s a bit of everything”

      I hope that provides some good racing together with the fact that many drivers are concern with the level of grip.

    5. Imagine that there were some races on Koreas track, but the administration\ management or whatever of those racing series are acting like FOM, and removing all videos from youtube :P
      Heh, I wonder if any F1 driver ever came across this annoying massage on youtube: “video was removed on request of Formula One Management” (or something like that).

    6. Congratulations Robert. 3rd place in Rallye Antibles d’Azur sounds realy awesome. Amaizing that guy from singlesitter machine can challenge with experienced oponents in better cars. Rober in his Renault Clio S1600( ad 2005) won three SS-es. Congratulations!

      1. Yeah! Robert drove a two-wheel-drive car and won in this category. And he was 3rd in the general classification with all 4×4 cars (so he beat most of them).

        1. He also won in his category in Rally del Friuli and Rally del Salento.

    7. A track having a “bit of everything” sounds like “jack of all trades”. Please design a circuit with a few good corners that complement the characteristic of the track. E.g., long, high-speed, and flowing. Monza and Canada come to mind. In trying to cram every conceivable combination of corners and straights into a circuit, you are liable to only make it mediocre.

      1. I agree. All the new Tilkedrome tracks have “a little of everything”.
        If this is Tuesday it must be Abu Dahbi.

    8. In certain situation or sucumstances stress works well to humanbeings,can some one describe why and how and when ?

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