Engineer Preview: Coates Hire Ipswich 360

How could Craig Lowndes not be a favourite this weekend at Queensland Raceway, having won the last five consecutive races there? Jeromy Moore, engineer on the #888 Holden Commodore believes the pair’s success at the circuit is down to the Red Bull Racing Australia driver’s ability to race on soft tyres.

“The last five races have been won on soft tyres – I believe Craig is very good at driving them to a certain distance,” Moore told v8supercars.com.au.

“He has an uncanny feel for knowing how much he can slide the tyres versus how long he has to make them last.”

Of the pair’s wins at Queensland Raceway, the standout for Moore was the third race in 2011.

“All weekend it was almost a two horse race with Craig leading and Tim Slade pushing us right to the flag, but in the third race, both guys were pushing so hard, the car that came third was around 35 seconds behind!”

Moore tells all about the Coates Hire Ipswich 360 this weekend.

V8supercars.com.au: What are the main characteristics of the circuit?

Moore: “Willowbank, although looking simple on paper, is actually quite difficult to set the car up to get it 100 percent through all the corners – a couple of higher speed corners (like) T1 and T2 mixed together with lower speed stop-start corners, with a bumpy surface thrown in to the mix.

“So for a consistent race car you need good traction to get out of the slower corners fast, good front grip to carry speed through the fast T2 which leads you onto the back straight and into T3, which is the best place for overtaking and having a car that can handle bumps at the same time.”

How will the weekend’s format affect setup and strategy?

“Being able to change tyres in between the 60/60 means you can set the car up to be quite aggressive on the tyres as they only have to last 20 laps, compared to Sunday's 32 lap races. So you need two slightly different approaches to setup and strategy (and the drivers approach to the race in terms of how hard he pushes) to maximise both formats.”

What is the tyre allocation and what sort of degradation are you expecting? How will this impact setup and strategy?

“This weekend we run entirely on the soft Dunlop tyre. We receive five sets per car and have four races [two halves on Saturday, two races on Sunday], so we have a spare set of tyres to allow a late strategic pit stop should a Safety Car appear and a team wants to roll the dice of coming in and fitting fresh tyres to charge through the field.

“The soft tyre means we need to make sure we look after the tyres with the setup and not burn the tyres up too quickly. Degradation shouldn’t be too drastic with the cooler weather at Willowbank this time of year, but like any soft tyre race, if the car isn’t setup well, or the driver pushes too hard you can be going backwards through the field at a quick rate of knots!”

What aspects of the circuit are you expecting to suit your car and what do you have to be mindful of?

“We so far this year have been stronger in the higher speed flowing tracks, so we are expecting to be good through the first two corners. Traction out of the slower stuff is critical also, so we need to not get too focused on making the car strong through the high speed T1 and T2 and neglecting the traction out of the slower speed corners.”

What are you expecting to be the most important thing to do well this weekend?

“With the shorter races, and three qualifying sessions, the weekend’s results hinge on qualifying well. If you start down the field you have to take more risks and fight hard to get up to the front, so our main focus is getting a good qualifying position in each of the qualifying sessions so we are up near the pointy end to start with.”